Shadows Of The Great War
by C. Mage
Summary: Imagine running the shadows, surviving all sorts of threats from man and beast for six years. You're young, tough and you can handle anything the world can throw at you. Now, imagine that world being taken away...
1. Chapter 1

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 1: Until We Meet Again**

 **By C. Mage**

.

.

I'm the only one left.

We never should've taken that run.

* * *

It started with the call from our fixer, Lisa. She had a job for us, a Mr. Johnson with a monkeywrench job. She'd set up the meet at the Alabaster Maiden, nine at night, tonight. Whoever the Johnson worked for, they needed some serious sabotage done, so we needed to be loaded for piasma.

I'm Darkma...okay, "Sleeper". I liked the other handle better, but then, I've always been into comicbook superheroes, and i thought "Darkman" sounded cooler. Problem is, when you run the shadows, you don't get the luxury of picking your own name. They called me "Sleeper", because Icer and Heloquin were elven and Stone was a dwarf, making me the only un-Awakened member of the crew.

What? You were expecting Shakespeare?

It didn't change the fact that I dressed like I belonged in a comicbook. No, no spandex combat uniform. I went for the pulp look: all black clothing, long coat, engineer work boots, and my signature, a wide brimmed hat. As street sams went, I was definitely in the "well-dressed" category. No obvious chrome on me, but I've been running the shadows for six years, and I've had some work done. Wired reflexes, to give me the speed I needed, plus a reflex trigger to make sure I didn't shoot anyone who threw me a surprise party.

Once was enough.

Muscle enhancement, giving me the power I needed to take on trolls and win. Bones laced with titanium to provide support for the muscles. Headware like cybereyes and cyberears. And my personal favorites, foot-long cyberspurs in my arms, when I want to get up-close-and-personal.

I was actually becoming the superhero I wanted to be.

Icer was a decker, and he could crunch numbers like nobody else could. There was an art to his craft, more than just mathematics, which made him unstoppable when he needed to get things done. Heloquin was a mage, with a real "dark clown" look to him. He'd gone into all kinds of places, all kinds of different planes of existence, and one day, he went a little too far. Heloquin went somewhere people weren't meant to go, and he came back different.

Likes-eating-his-meat-raw-and-bloody different. But, as distasteful as his new eating habits, and other habits, were, Heloquin was still my friend, and I don't ditch my friends. Some people have made comparisons between us and how Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday stuck together.

And then there was Stone, our street shaman. She was a force of nature, quite literally, when she wanted to be, and not just with magic. She knew guns and how to really make guys like the Yaks and the mob want to rethink their life choices. She was the only woman I knew who carried duct tape in eight different colors. And she wasn't shy about using them.

We'd been running the shadows for a long time, so when we heard about the job, we knew it wasn't going to be a cakewalk going in, so we made sure we had the equipment we needed before going to the meet. Just in case. Once we had the gear stowed in our vehicles, we headed for the meet.

Time to get paid.

* * *

The Alabaster Maiden was a wizzer hangout, a good place for runners to go in if they want some privacy for meets, but good security, since every mage and shaman worth their wands had watcher spirits keeping an eye out for trouble, both inside and out. The owner knew me and the others through Stone and Heloquin, so she waved us through. We headed for one of the back rooms, expecting to wait for the Johnson as he, or she, sized us up from some hidden spot. Imagine our surprise when we found Mr. Johnson waiting for us with a couple of cybered-up security guards. That meant the client was eager, or desperate.

And that meant more nuyen. Better chance to pay us what we're actually worth.

The Mr. Johnson was a woman, tailored suit, Someone Important, or someone trying to look that way. She started even before we took our seats at the negotiating table. "I need your team to take out a lab. It's owned by Aztechnology." She waited a few moments to let that sink in, wait for first refusals. A fair consideration, Aztechnology was a big company, and going up against meant serious heat if there was any blowback. "They're doing cutting edge research, but the people I work for want them to suffer a major setback. Think you can do the job?"

"For that kind of damage, that kind of deniability, we're talking major nuyen." I usually took the lead during negotiations, since my time in the shadows netted me a reputation for being a straight shooter, in more ways than one. Plus, I was a big, intimidating frakker and I knew it. Even before getting cybered up, I was a hair under seven feet tall. Adding the cyber made me look even more formidable. "What are you offering?"

"Twenty-five, each, half now, half on delivery."

"Fifty. Half now."

"Thirty. And this needs to be done tonight."

"Forty-five. And only because we don't like the Azzies."

"Thirty-five."

"Forty-five. And if the next words out of your mouth aren't an agreement, I start going HIGHER instead of lower."

She looked me in the eyes and I gave her my best look, the cybereyes glowing red. We stared each other down for a few minutes, then she sighed. "Fine. Forty-five, twenty up front."

"Twenty-five."

"...done." she seemed resigned, but I knew it was a sham. Someone that desperate brought more money to the table to get things done, and like all corporate types, she was probably running on an expense account. She wasn't negotiating about how much to pay us, she was negotiating to see how much she could skim off the top for herself. "But it needs to be done by four am next morning."

"Done." I smiled. "Now, pay us. That will make us contracted employees instead of the competition."

She frowned, probably because I knew she was reaching for the files on the lab. Rookie mistake. You NEVER give out particulars without a commitment. She quickly made up four certified credsticks and and tossed them to each of us in turn. Me last. Yeah, she didn't much care for me. Suited me just fine. Wasn't like we were going steady.

"What have you got on the facility?" I asked, as if I didn't know how eager she was to get this done.

"It's outside the city, completely underground." She took the folder she'd been reaching for out of her briefcase and slid it across the table at me. "I've got floor plans, the location, but no access. You'll need to get that yourself," she added, probably patting herself on the back that she was throwing us what she thought was a curveball.

"Icer, what are we seeing here?" I showed him the blueprints, my eyes never leaving the Mr. Johnson.

Icer looked them over carefully, making little "hmmm" noises here and there. "Whatever they're working on, it's a huge power sink. This could be a small fusion reactor. All of it is leading to this chamber here, so whatever's here is the paydata."

"Fusion reactor? What kind of yield?"

Icer smiled. "Small. If it goes critical, it'll turn the lab to slag, but the nuclear damage would be limited to a few hundred yards. Most of it would be contained underground, but if it went critical, you're looking at the lab being destroyed, but the neutron exposure would irradiate the area. It'd be a PR disaster, and we could make it look like an accident. Goodbye lab, hello bad press for the Azzies, and nobody'd ever find us."

"Providing that we get this done before security gets wind of us. Look at the way this is set up. One entrance, one exit. We go in there, we're in a bottle." Stone looked up at me. "This is insane."

"Do you want out?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Stone smiled. "I'm looking forward to it. Besides, you guys would be chalk outlines without me."

"Any physical security outside?" I asked our client's go-between.

"Almost none. The main security of the place is that it's so hard to find. Without knowing about it firsthand, all you'd see is a small clearing in a forest. The workers live on-site, any supplies needed are flown in by chopper. It's the only way they've been able to make it work."

"Well, it won't be working for long. Come on, chummers. It's been HOURS since I blew anything up." We packed up and left, but during the planning, I noticed the Mr. Johnson smiling, but I couldn't tell if it was satisfaction, or something more.

I was confident we'd be able to get out of this. If she did decide to frag us over, there wouldn't be a place on this EARTH she'd be able to hide from me.

* * *

We got to the location, taking a van and parking it a mile out, going the rest of the way on foot. We made it to or parking place just before midnight. Chronometers were synchronized and we went silent the rest of the way in. It wasn't long before we came upon the first indications we were on the right track.

A pack of hellhounds were in the area, Aztechnology was opting for biological security. A thermographic scan and dual assensing showed the hellhounds were chipped for control, but not cybered to enhance them in any way. That meant they were a roving patrol. We still had an hour in our timeline before we needed to be at the lab, but we needed half that just to get there.

Finally, just before we started thinking to risk using silencers on our weapons, they moved off to the north. We waited, then moved forward. I took point since I was the most likely to survive anything someone could throw at me. Between my armored clothing and my natural durability, I'd been able to survive attacks that would've reduced most people to chunky salsa.

Still, that stuff SMARTS.

We made it to the location seven minutes ahead of schedule. "Icer, see about finding that door. Everyone else, split up, ten meters out, prone. I lay down to cover Icer as he worked, Stone and Heloquin heading in opposite directions as I broke out the sniping rifle. I had her up in record time and smartlinked in. Anything within 1200 yards was dead meat.

"Got it," came the whisper over the commlink in my head from Icer's subvocal mike. I turned my head slightly, seeing a large section of the grass part and slide to the sides. Those were BIG doors. Beg enough to let tanks through. If someone had satellites on us, this could get ugly.

"In. Now." I slung the rifle on my back and took out my Predator IIs as we went in, close the door behind us as the lift lowered us deeper into the lab. "Icer, access." He nodded and went to work, preparing to pop the air vent coming up. When it did, her opened the hatch, moving in, leading the way for the rest of us.

We got in just in time. The lift stopped and from the sound of it, a dozen men had been waiting. "What the...dammit, it's just another response time drill. All right, guys, you know the procedure, head topside, check the area, shoot anything that moves, come back down. How many of these damn things do we have to do?"

I told the others using hand signals to move deeper inside. Once we got to a place where we knew we wouldn't be heard, Icer pulled up the map. As he did, an idea occurred to me. "Check personal emails. Find out what other drills these schlubs have had to do…"

* * *

We dropped down into a supply station and planned our next move. The Azzies, with their usual paranoia, have been running drills to make sure the staff knew what to do, no matter what. However, instead of running the drills once every two or three weeks, they've been running almost every single day.. Security drills, fire drills, assault drills, even drills for what happens if the reactor fails. And that gave me an idea. "Icer, what drill would get this place emptied in a hurry?"

"Easy. The reactor drill. Everyone's required to head to the lift. If it's a real emergency, the lift will rise and get them out of the lab."

"How much time will that give us?"

"If they get to the lift and wait, I can set the lift to go up as if the reactor WAS going critical. That'll confuse them long enough for us to do the job."

"Exit strategy?"

Icer checked the map. "Here, but it isn't ideal. Emergency vents for the reactor, but they're too small."

"We could always bogart some of the guard's uniforms and just move out last." Stone picked up one of the uniforms. "They have them in dwarf sizes."

"Nice to know Aztechnology's an equal-opportunity oppressor. Okay, Heloquin, Stone, you two and I are going to 'borrow' a few of the guards. Should be easier since half of them are outside…"

So far, so good. We subdued four of the guards, brought them back to our 'base camp' and took their credentials, then put their uniforms on over our own...which brought us to our first problem. "Sleeper, you're going to have to stay here. No offense, but you're going to stick out. I've checked through the security roster and nobody here is over six foot two."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Just until the halls are cleared." Heloquin patted my shoulder. "First casualty of battle, you know that, Sleeper."

"Right. Well, make it quick. I want to be out of here LONG before I gain the ability to glow in the dark."

"Don't worry. We'll break into a vending machine for you, we know how much you need to eat for your bioware." Stone grinned.

"Ha frakkin' ha."

* * *

 _One of the problems with cybernetic mods,_ I thought as I waited there, _is that constantly having the time in my vision makes it go a frag-ton slower._ It was taking far too long, and I began to wonder if something went wrong. Then I reminded myself that this was a shadowrun, of _course_ something went wrong. I checked the plans that Icer gave me, trying to see how close I was to the reactor…

I heard footsteps and prepared myself, both pistols out and ready, and the door opened to reveal three people in guard uniforms, one of them a dwarf. "Sleeper, it's us," Stone said quickly. "We're ready to start the party. And there WILL be dancing."

"Good. Don't wait on my account, we're 23 minutes behind schedule. You got a disguise for me?"

"Yeah, you'll love it," Heloquin said in a tone I didn't much like. "We found something that would fit you and would be a perfect disguise. It's waiting in the main lab."

"Then let's get started." Icer was already pulling up a holographic screen, tapping a few places on the screen. "What's the score?"

"Standard procedure. When the temperature in the fusion reactor gets to a certain temperature, everyone evacuates to the lift. There's a delay while the system tries to scram the reactor, giving people time to escape, then closes a series of blast doors to minimize the damage. What I'm doing is telling the reactor's computers to lie to the technicians...fooling them into thinking the reactor is having the worst case of 'indigestion'..." He tapped one last button and klaxons started going off, along with spinning red lights. "...ever." he finished with a smile. "Stay here while we 'help' the technicians escape."

I was about to say something when they drew back and closed the door on me. Great. All dressed up and no one to shoot. Was starting to think I brought all this C-12 for the hell of it. I was ready for a firefight and the way things were going, I wouldn't need to fire a shot.

I had to admit, I was somewhat disappointed. And it got me thinking. Things were going WAY too smoothly. True, we managed to get in without being detected. Icer would probably disagree...hmmm. "Icer," I radioed, "just how hard was it to get into the system?"

"System was a stone cold bitch to get through. The ICe in this system is blacker than a CEO's heart. Why?"

"Was starting to think things were going too well."

"Frak that. I almost got flatlined getting into this system. You're just disappointed you didn't get to shoot anyone. We'll be done in a few minutes."

"Right." Oksy. Maybe it was just a matter of perspective, but I still couldn't shake the fact that this was way too easy. I made a mental note to keep an eye on things, because this run wasn't over until we we back at my squat, tossing back the third round of beer.

* * *

The door opened twelve minutes later. "Come on, Sleeper, what you waiting for, the end of the world?" I stepped out and looked around, then followed them as we hustled through empty labs and hallways.

We got into the main lab, which gave us a straight shot to the reactor. I stopped as I saw an archway hooked up to all kinds of machines. "What the drek were they DOING in here?"

"Sleeper, you're over here."

I looked to where Heloquin was pointing and oh FRAKKIN' DREK. It was a gurney with a biohazard-sealed body-bag draped over it. "You gotta be kidding me."

"Sorry, Sleeper," Icer snickered, "but it was the only thing we could find in your size!"

"Joke later. Where are we at?"

Icer pulled up the display. "I can get the reactor to overload, it'll go critical in approximately eleven minutes."

"Get started." I looked around at the machinery as Icer went to work, preparing the "accident" yet to come. As I did, I started realizing what it was I was looking at. "Guys...look at these notes. These guys were working on trying to get in touch with other realities. This thing's a 'pan-dimensional bridge' according to the files, here. Looks like someone was either planning an escape...or redefining the words, 'hostile takeover'."

"Sleeper, enough science-fiction!" Heloquin sighed. "Just get into the bag."

"Fine, geez, what do I know?" I look up as I hear metal sliding on metal back the way we came. "Uh, Icer...don't you think you should wait until we've managed to leave first?"

"It's not me! Someone's overriding the controls!"

"WHAT?" Stone demanded. "Then shut down the reactor!"

Icer starting tapping as the deck's control board. "I...can't."

"Talk to me, Icer!"

"The reactor's at the point of no return. In eight minutes, this things going to blow." He looked up at me helplessly. "Sleeper...I can't stop it and I can't open the doors."

I KNEW things were going too smoothly. "Any way we can blast through the doors?"

"They're called 'blast doors' for a reason, Sleeper," Stone said crossly. "And you saw the plans." She looked at the other two men in the chamber. "We're hosed."

I turned to the machinery I'd been eyeing before. "Maybe not. Icer, you've got five minutes to figure out how this works."

"On it!"

Heloquin stared at me. "Please tell me that you don't think this will actually WORK, do you?"

"The table is cleared for better ideas, Hel, so if you got 'em, let's hear 'em."

"Okay, Sleeper...I'm powering it up." icer looked up as the archway lights began to flicker, then oscillate as a shimmering appeared in the doorway.

"Any idea where we're going?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"No clue. The only record of anything is a point of contact called, 'Alpha'. They'd made contact with it, but hadn't sent anyone through."

I looked through the shimmer to see something else just beyond. It looked like the interior of a room, but it wasn't brightly lit, and I saw bedroom furniture. The walls, floor and ceiling looking like it might've been the inside of a military complex or some kind of base, but right now, we couldn't afford to be picky. The countdown sat at less than two minutes and it was starting to get hot in here. "All right, everyone through, fast!"

"We don't know what's on the other side!" Stone said with more doubt in her voice than I'd ever heard before.

"Well, on this side is going to be a fission reaction, Stone. Our chances might not be great on that side, but they're frak-all here! GO!"

Stone growled at me and ran through the doorway, Icer and Heloquin following. I went in last with fifty seconds left to go. As we went through the doorway, I felt pins and needles all over my body and activated my low-light vision. We were all on the other side, but I didn't stop, heading for the bedroom door and opening it. "COME ON, get moving, because this room's about to get one helluva DRAFT!"

We got out of there, moving into a hallway that had seen better days, continuing to run down the hallway to another set of doors. I pressed the button to open it and we made it through, the door closing behind us. Less than a second later, I felt a massive shift in the floor as the door behind us seemed to _flex,_ then the door glowed a dull red.

We got out of there, heading through another hallway and not stopping until there were at least two more doors between us and whatever nuclear inferno was going on behind us. We allowed ourselves a few minutes to sit down and breathe. We seemed to be in some sort of break room, with tables and chairs, some plates, a few coffee mugs, but it was clear that this place hadn't been used for a long time.

"All right...I think we made it." I stood up. "Heloquin, Stone...what do you get from this place? Can you go astral?"

Heloquin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened his eyes again. His eyes went wide, then he shut them again. "No...no, nononono…!"

"What?" Icer demanded.

"Something….really horrible happened…." He shook his head.

"Okay, until we find out more about this place, stay out of the astral and no magic. We are completely in the dark here. Come on. This place has to have some information about where we are, books at the least."

"I think I got something here. Look."

I walked around the corner to see a set of stairs and some signs, with words on them in English. "Overseer", "Atrium", "Schoolroom", and "Exit". "Okay, good news, we're somewhere that uses English. Let's see where this goes."

* * *

We made it to the Overseer's office, but not before we ran into some of the local pests.

We were halfway down the hallway when three roaches came out and started moving towards us. Roaches we'd seen before...except THESE roaches were the size of small dogs! They didn't even seem afraid of us until I put my foot down. Literally. "Okay...giant roaches. Great."

Stone shivered. "I'm starting to wonder if we weren't better off back where we were."

"Stone, we would've needed SPF seven billion back there. Let's not panic just yet."

The Overseer's office was occupied by a large desk, some lockers, file cabinets, some display screens, a computer terminal...and a skeleton wearing some sort of wrist computer. "Icer, the terminal, Stone, Heloquin, the files. I'll check out the fashion accessory here."

They nodded and went to work. Well, not immediately. Icer took one look at the terminal and stared. "Fastjack's Feces...you gotta be kidding me!"

"Too advanced?" I asked, walking over to where Icer was, looking at a terminal that had a dark screen with amber lettering displayed on it.

"Too PRIMITIVE. Monochrome screen? This thing's a dinosaur." He checked it over for plugs, shaking his head. "Definitely not compatible with my deck or my datajack. I'm going to have to do this the old-old-OLD-fashioned way. Gimme a few minutes." He sat down, cracked his knuckles and went to work.

"Anyone else got anything?"

"Yeah. Some textbooks." Stone planted them on the desk. "And you ain't gonna like the subject. Based on what I've read so far, history took a massive step to the right after the bombs were dropped on Japan back in World War Two."

I sat down on a nearby couch. "Lay it on me."

"After that, there was a sudden surge of interest in nuclear power." She thumbed through the pages. "It became the primary source of energy in the United States, prompting considerable advances in technology. Fusion-powered cars. Commercially-available robots. But there's one thing that didn't get developed…" She looked up from the book. "Our friend the transistor."

"Wait...if nobody came up with the transistor, how did they manage to get robotics?"

"Looks like it took a while...but they came up with alternatives. A different kind of technology...and there was a greater emphasis on optimizing software. Building AIs here was considerably easier, and they came up with giant leaps forward…" She kept going through the pages. "Oh DREK…!"

"What?"

Stone looked up, her face pale. "No Awakening. There's no magic. And it gets worse."

I was afraid to ask. "HOW?"

"October twenty-third, the year twenty-seventy-seven."

"What about it?"

Stone was ashen now. "World War Three. The whole planet got nuked, Sleeper."

I was glad I was already sitting down. My head was spinning. "Hel?"

"I don't know if it's good or bad news at this point. There's some literature here about where we are. According to this, we're in something called a 'Vault', a huge fallout shelter designed to accommodate a thousand people. We seem to be in Vault 212, located in Louisiana."

"What year?"

Icer spoke up. "The year twenty-two eighty-seven...two hundred and ten years since the bombs dropped."

Heloquin turned to Icer. "What have you got?"

"More questions than answers. I managed to get into the system. Apparently there's a flaw in the operating system that enables a debug mode, but instead of typing in IDs and passwords, it throws a whole bunch of them up on the screen, and you have to pick one. It's like some kind of word game…"

"Truly fascinating, Icer, but skip to the end, what have you found out?" Heloquin said impatiently.

Icer cleared his throat, indicating a long answer. "For starters, this Vault was part of an experiment. The company that made this Vault and a whole slew of others, never intended the Vaults to be used to save the American Way Of Life. Out of...over seven hundred vaults...only a dozen or so was designed to actually house people safely. The others were set up to experiment on people. The Overseers were actually in on it. Check this out. This Vault was designed to test the occupants ability to survive adverse conditions when a vent that was supposed to be used to circulate air actually opened into a nearby lake. We're on the top level...all twelve levels below us are completely flooded. And before you ask, yes, the water's radioactive."

"Sleeper, no offense, but we might've been better off staying home," Stone said sourly.

"And if we hadn't taken the job in the first place, we'd be home safe in our beds right now. It was a chance to survive, Stone, and that's the first bullet point in our job descriptions. None of us knew where we were going, but nobody wanted to stay there." I hoped I sounded more convinced about that than I was. I was starting to think we should've stayed, too, but they were looking to me and I wasn't about to show them I was as scared as they were. "Icer, just how bad is it out there?"

"No clue. All I know is that things went straight to drek over two hundred years ago."

"Any chance of communicating with anyone out there?"

"...Sleeper, your commlink. Tune it to FM radio frequencies."

"FM?"

"Have your commlink scan between 88 and 108 megahertz."

"All right…"

"You've got a Commlink IV, so you've got more than one channel. Have another channel scan between 535 to 1705 kilohertz."

"That's...AM radio. Geez, Icer, I didn't think my commlink could go that low. Trying it now...nothing on FM…"

"Probably because we're inside this Vault. But AM frequencies aren't blocked so easily."

"...wait. I got one. AM 707...you gotta be kidding me…"

"What, what are you hearing?"

"I'll patch it through to our earbud comms."

There was a brief pause, then a resonating, husky female voice was heard, "...on the rise in the Acadiana Wasteland, and our hearts go out to all the settlements out there. Remember, _chere_ , Super Mutants may be big and dumb, but don't underestimate them. Just find a place to hide. In other news, Mayor-For-Life Michael Boudreaux of Red City once again swears that he is not in partnership with any of the local raiders, nor is he paying them off by withholding aid from the smaller settlements out in the bayous. Trade between the Red City and Nawlins continues to be troublesome, as Nawlins' mayor, Dennis Lagarde, restricts access to the fishing ports in retaliation against Boudreaux's open accusations of corruption and economic deception. On a brighter note, Mardi Gras is coming in a month, and we're looking forward to a huge turnout…"

I switched it off. "Well, the good news is that there are actually survivors of the nuclear war."

"Ready for the bad news?" Icer said dryly. "First off, all the ammo we have? That's it. Unless we can find someplace that can make caseless ammunition for our guns, we're hosed. Second, the technology here is backwards and advanced at the same time. The architecture is mostly familiar, but look at this stuff. It' practically STONE AGE. This terminal is working on 128 _kilobytes_ of RAM! The mainframe of this place? Our PDAs are more powerful. The laws of technology are different here, so different that my cyberdeck is quite possibly the most advanced computer on the PLANET...not that it's much help, since it's far too advanced to connect with anything here. I can try to kludge some kind of connection, see if I can come up with a counterparting program that'll enable me to talk down to the computers here." He stopped as he looked at the object I'd found with the skeleton. "Sleeper, let me see that."

I handed it to him. "I found it around the wrist of that skeleton over there. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say this guy was the Overseer."

"Well, whaddya know? Sleeper, this thing is the local equivalent of a PDA. This could be a big help, let me look it over and see what I can find."

"You do that. Everyone else, search every inch of this place, anything that might be useful, bring it back here. Weapons, medicine, food, ammunition, _anything_ that could benefit us. And Icer? Figure out how we get out of here. I'm going to see what condition the front door is in."

"On it."

I nodded and went up the stairs indicated by the sign as the entrance. As I walked up, I could only guess at why this "Vault-Tec" tried to take what remained of the human population here and use them as guinea pigs and use the Vaults as petri dishes.

To be honest, I wish I could say I was surprised at how depraved a corporation like that could be, but that capacity died when I was eleven. Growing up in the Barrens of Seattle can do that to a kid.

* * *

Well, at least the way out wasn't exactly flimsy. The door itself was a metal cog, and based on the track used to roll away the door after it had been pulled back, the door was four feet thick, made of solid metal and probably weighed fifteen tons, at least. With the locks I could see, the thing could've probably withstood a direct hit from a nuclear explosion...which was clearly the appeal. There was a terminal that indicated the means of cycling the locks and opening the Vault, which meant there was probably one outside, too.

The place still had power, and lights, which showed that the Overseer was prepared for what happened when the place flooded...or so he thought. I found some weapons, two pistols and two dozen rounds. According to the information on the boxes of ammo and the guns, the bullets were 10mm rounds. Not exactly Predator IIs, but what was?

* * *

I moved downstairs to find out we had a small collection of a wide variety of items...including a pile of those giant roaches. "What did you bring those for?"

"Well, Sleeper...you're not going to like this, but there's a funny thing about these roaches," Heloquin said curiously.

"What?"

"There's a lot of meat on them…"

"Hel, that is _not frakkin' funny._ "

"Well, you got a choice, Sleeper. Eat those and get something out of them, or don't eat them and risk your bioware shutting down while trying to find something more agreeable."

"...what else have we got?"

"Got some medicine, here. Five 'stimpaks', eight containers of purified water, four 'Rad-Xs', seven 'Rad-Aways' and two 'Mentats'. Also got some 10mm ammunition, but no guns for them."

"Found two up by the entrance."

"Good. Found some tools, and some assorted junk. Since I know what you can do with household chemicals, Sleeper, I found some turpentine, 'Wonderglue', cleaning supplies and some cigarettes."

"Stone, any idea what those medications are for?"

"Well...according to the information I found in one of the labs on this level, stimpaks can be used to jumpstart the body's ability to repair itself. Rad-X can increase the body's ability to resist the effects of radioactivity. Rad-Aways can actually force the body into metabolizing the radiation in the body, transforming it into natural body heat and neutralizing it. Mentats can be used to increase, however temporarily, cognitive function and creativity. However, the box warns that mentats can be habit-forming."

"Also known as 'addictive'." I turned to Icer. "Where are we at?"

"One of the nice things about primitive tech is that it's easy to sort out. I've managed to rewire a standard datajack cable to enable a connection between our tech and theirs. I've got my cyberdeck plugged in, and it's helping to speed things up with the terminal, but I'm seeing some REALLY odd code here. I've also been able to cross-reference a few things and hack into the back end of the operating systems. There is connection to a satellite dish, and I'm trying to see if there are any satellites in orbit with surveillance functions."

"That are still working?"

"Actually, barring meteorites and other celestial mishaps, there's a pretty high possibility they are, if the technology down here is any indicator. These things were built to last. I've also managed to pull up some interesting recordings and television broadcasts that suggests some cultural aspects. In some ways, the world was kind of a throwback to the 1940's and 1950's."

"Yeah, check out some of the magazines we found." Stone showed me a catalog filled with clothing and appliances, but the fashions were seriously outdated. "It's like the culture just hits 'pause' sometime around 1956."

"Why?"

"Who knows? Maybe having a culture built around nuclear power threw things off?"

"Check out the popular soft-drink." Stone flipped through a magazine and opened it to a page of a 1950's pinup girl in a suggestive space suit leaning against a bottle of….'Nuka-Cola'. Bewildered, I kept reading. "Drek...this place had a fraggin' _theme park_?"

"Got it!" Icer crowed. "We're in. I found a network of satellites, downloading their data to my 's not ideal, but we should be able to pull up maps, maybe communication."

"Good. Come on, let's get some rest. We've been at this for hours and, to be honest, you guys don't look good. I probably look like drek, too. Sleep well. And that means you too, Icer."

"Fine...I'll have my SAKs get to work." Icer sounded disappointed, but I knew he'd stay up for days, given the chance, and I wasn't kidding when I told him he didn't look good. Fortunately, the place wasn't cold and we found beds to lay down on. We've slept in worse places.

* * *

I woke up alone.

When I pulled myself up, I'd realized that I'd slept for damn near sixteen hours. "Fraggin' Hades, guys, why didn't you wake me…?" I stopped as I realized that Icer was missing, but Stone and Heloquin were still in their beds.

I got up and went over to shake Stone awake, but stopped when I touched her. She was cold. "Stone?" I asked, turning her on her back, then checked her pulse. She was dead. Died in her sleep. I practically leaped over to check on Heloquin. He was gone, too. And from the lack of rigor, they'd been gone for hours.

No, this can't be happening...they were ALIVE, dammit! I backed away from them, then I remembered.

Icer.

I ran like hell back to the Overseer's office and found him there, sprawled in his seat, still plugged into his cyberdeck. As I walked over to check on him, my presence must've triggered the cyberdeck, which powered up and Icer's voice came out of it. "Sleeper, if you're hearing this, then you're still alive. I don't know what happened to us. Maybe there was something that didn't like metahumans, or magic or something else. Doesn't matter by now. We're dead, and you're still alive. First off, don't ever blame yourself for what happened. You didn't see this coming. None of us did. But we didn't want you to be alone. I'm going to be trying something. I'm running a compiler program to try and see if the code from our world and the code from this world is compatible. If it is, then I'm leaving you the deck and the programs, in the hopes that they'll evolve using the code here. If they do, you'll be able to hack any terminal on this planet, and the SAKs will help you with information and help keep you from getting lonely...or going insane. I don't know how you're going to get by, but we did the best we could. All our gear's in the footlocker next to your bed. I'm sorry we didn't wake you, but we suck at goodbyes."

I didn't realize I'd been sitting on the floor for a few minutes. Icer's voice went on. "The deck's equipped with a satlink to the network of satellites in orbit that I commandeered. Over the next few days, you'll be getting aerial maps updated in your system. I've also upgraded that wrist-device you found, linked it to the cyberdeck. It's called a 'Pip-Boy'. You'll be able to use it to access and hack the systems in this world." Icer started coughing on the recording. "Sorry about that….and sorry for leaving you. Look, do me a favor. You've always wanted to try and make the world around you a better place. Don't stop doing that. Find people and help them."

There was silence for a very long time, then Icer said, "Drek, I'm tired."

And that was all.

* * *

I sat there for almost a full day before I realized that I had to get moving. I had to eat and get myself together. I saved the nutrient packs for later, in case of a real emergency...as if eating roach meat wasn't enough of one.

The toxin sensor in my tongue confirmed that it wasn't poisonous. It was like eating lobster, only I was eating just the tail...and God help me, the taste was similar. Somewhere between lobster and catfish. I looked at the pile of huge bugs and couldn't believe I was actually looking FORWARD to the taste. I ate every single one of them, pan frying them one after another. My brain was telling me to throw up, but my calorie-starved stomach was telling me to shovel it down. And believe me, my stomach was louder.

I put the upgraded Pip-Boy on my left wrist and waited for it to boot up, synchronize itself with the cyberdeck. A lot of the information on it was useless, since my cyberware was throwing a lot of its systems off, but as it calibrated itself to me, I became more aware of where I was. The device also was nice enough to tell me how radioactive I was, thanks to the huge meal of Radioactive Roaches I had.

I loaded up. The two 10mm were on my waist, the rest of the weapons and ordnance loaded on my back, most in a state of disassembly. The pack was big, but I was even bigger, and I wasn't weighed down. Not unless you count the three dead friends I'd known for years.

And I was going to carry that weight.

* * *

When the door opened, I expected to be blinded immediately, but the door opened to a set of stairs leading towards a fenced-in area. A screeching from above told me there was a lift coming down for me. As it arrived and the fence raised, I looked back at the tomb where my friends rested. I made sure the door was back in place, then raised a gloved fist and brought it down on the control panel, sealing their tomb forever as it collapsed under the blow, plastic and sparks flying.

I got onto the lift, making sure I never looked back.

It was just after dawn when I got to the top, a little early for my shades just yet. The platform I was now on was surrounded by discarded metal crates, what looked like stripped cars and a couple of small metal boxes that served as guard stations. The foliage around me was largely overgrown, and I had a feeling there weren't too many military targets down in this state...when it was a state. of the Union instead of a state of disrepair. I was at the top of a hill, and when I looked down, I saw a path, of sorts, leading to the ruins of a town. The commlink started picking up another signal, one with classical music playing on it. The AM station, calling itself "Red Stick Rock", was playing something from the Big Band era titled, "Crawl Out Through The Fallout".

Talk about your nuclear culture…!

As I walked down the path, the link to the cyberdeck activated, showing me where I was. The Vault had been built within a town called, "Lafayette", and the place had certainly seen better days. The architecture had a huge "Leave It To Beaver" vibe to it...

Yes. I watched _Leave It To Beaver._ Don't judge me.

Most of the city had clearly been reclaimed by the unrelenting forces of nature. I checked my map to see if I could find any trace of a civilization, The only thing that looked like it was still standing was a large sports arena called, "the Cajundone', because OF COURSE it was. There were some connected buildings to it and enough urban sprawl keeping it from getting reclaimed, so it seemed like the perfect place to find any survivors.

I put my wraparound shades on. Same goal...new shadows.

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Chapter 2

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 2: The Devil's Due**

 **By C. Mage**

As I walked through the city, or what was left of it, I saw that the city may have not suffered from a direct hit from a nuke, but it suffered from other things. I saw evidence of riots, panic, fighting...and a few other things I didn't expect.

One of them showed its head as I came around a corner off Johnston Street. Well, a dozen of them, actually. They were barely human, with patchy skin and ragged clothes, and looked like rotting corpses that didn't have the good sense to stay down and finish rotting.

I took out the 10mm pistols out and took aim. With most normal people, they would've needed to react in a split-second. With the mods in my body, that was more than enough time.

The guns weren't smartlinked, but I managed. I fired off several shots in rapid succession, aiming for the heads. Believe me, after all the time I spent chasing after "Madame Le Fay" back in the Tir, I knew the importance of headshots. Once they were down, I realized how many rounds I used and shook my head. Until I found more ammunition or someone that could supply them, I was going to have to rely on hand-to-hand combat. I couldn't even use the spurs until I was certain I could get what I needed to maintain them. Well, if I needed them in an emergency, at least the Dikoting wouldn't be a total loss.

I started searching the building, keeping an eye out for more of those zombie-things. I found some supplies, but there's one thing that stood out. I found a lot of Nuka-Cola bottle caps, over 200 of them. I decided to keep them, just in case. They must be used for something, after all, otherwise they wouldn't have been so well-hidden. I scavenged what I could and started making my way southeast. As I did, I found more evidence that people had lived here, at one point after the war in 2077, but it's been two hundred years. Lot can, and clearly did, happen during that time.

There was still a lot of cultural touches that survived. The Cold War went on for over a century, and during that time, people lived the American Dream. Robots used for butlers, nannies and combat troops. Powered armor and weapons using ammo like lasers and superheated plasma.

My real education came from, interestingly enough, a high school.

I came across the baseball field and football field first. I immediately hit the locker rooms to see what I could find, figuring a place that dealt with sports injuries would be stocked up on first aid supplies. I was frustrated in my efforts until I found a locked door that hadn't been breached yet. Gotta love those institutional buildings with steel doors. I popped the lock and opened it to reveal lots of sports equipment, uniforms, footballs, baseballs...and the team doctor's stash.

I stuffed everything I could possibly use into my pack, wondering why this place seemed so empty. School was in good condition, all things considered, and I figured it would work great for a settlement of some kind. Use the building for places to sleep, the school cafeteria could make cooked food...and based on what I knew about high school food, the menu change might not even be noticed.

I stopped as I heard something outside. I walked out of the storeroom and peeked through one of the windows in the locker room. I didn't see anything, but I heard some pretty heavy footsteps.

Then I saw it...or should I say, _them._

Walking around on their hind legs were three creatures that looked like they had once been alligators in an earlier life. Now, they were humanoid, with long legs and arms, with claws and a serious attitude problem. When they walked into view together and looked around, one of them actually snapped at the other, provoking a sound from the second one that sounded like something between a growl and a hiss.

And they were bigger than me. It's not often I run into things bigger than me.

They were probably sniffing around for me, protecting their territory. Well, that was fine with me, I wasn't planning on making this place a home. The question was, were they going to let me leave? God knew I had the firepower to turn these guys into luggage, but I wasn't about to use them until I was sure my ammo, or guns, could be replaced.

I unpacked my grapplegun. Icer knew a dwarf named Thorin...hey, don't look at me, I didn't pick the name...anyways, he engineered one with a wrist mount, a powerful retraction motor and more than three hundred meters of high-tensile strength line. It looked bulky on most people, but on a guy my size, it was just perfect. Problem was, I couldn't wear it and the Pip-Boy at the same time. After a quick changeout of accessories, and I was good to go.

The gym was at the rear of the high school, and I hoped those gator-things didn't want to migrate much outside their chosen home. I didn't bother with the ten-mills, the peashooters would've just pissed those things off. I made my way up to the second floor of the gym, and you'd be surprised how quiet a guy like me can be. I just need to get to the roof, activate the ruthenium polymers in the armored clothing, and do everything I can to make sure I'm not worth going after. The armor wouldn't hid the pack I was carrying, but at least I'd be harder to pick out as humanoid.

As I went to the roof, I took my time. Reflex trigger was off and I knew haste was not going to be my friend this time, so I paused and checked to see where they were. Still looking for me. These fraggers were persistent, I'll give them that. Finally, I was on the roof, and it didn't take me long to find what I was looking for, a great big magnolia tree across what used to be a street. I picked up a chunk of masonry, braced myself, and threw it as hard as I could, as high as I could.

The chunk landed dead smack in the middle of the football field, and that got their attention, all right. They turned and started lumbering towards the impact point and I timed how long it took them to get there, which didn't seem like long enough to me. As soon as they started sniffing the chunk of concrete, I fired my grapplegun and leaped off. The motor groaned at the weight it was being forced to lift, but I got to the top, found some more trees, and swung my way across until the school was far in my rear-view.

I made a note to remember that place for later, lowered myself to the ground, then started walking.

* * *

Things got better, and worse.

Better meant not running into any more of the local wildlife for a while. Worse meant not running into any other people, either. Most of the sounds I expected to hear just weren't there. No birds. No animal sounds. No machinery. Just...bits and pieces of a world that used to be.

That's when I found myself a new problem.

You see, when you start replacing bone and muscle and nerve tissue and bodily organs with metal and wire and synthetic materials, You start to feel less human and more like a machine. And it's not a pretty process. For me, the list of cyberware and wetware was...long. Muscle replacement. Level 3 wired reflexes. Cybereyes and ears. Wetware mods for data management. Cyberspurs. A small air tank in my chest. Bones laced with titanium. Throat mods.

I had other mods made, bioware that didn't make me feel so artificial, enhanced cardial tissue, enhanced articulation in my joints, the tongue sensor, adrenal stimulator, nephritic screen and tailored pheromones, the good stuff. Everything that makes a body better.

Now...this environment was starting to affect me.

 _Cyberpsychosis_ , they called it. Disassociation. Lack of emotional empathy. A normal person under these conditions might lose it, deprived of social contact in a world turned into a mass grave. I needed to be around people, and soon, so that I could see some semblance of hope, try to help people, make this world better...or I'd start to withdraw and become a danger to people instead.

Add in the loss of my best friends…

No. Can't think about that. I roast the last of the radroach meat and bolt it down, then use the ultrasound mod in my cyberear to wake me if anything comes my way. I put out the fire cold, then lie down to get some sleep.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

* * *

I wake up at just past four am to sense something coming my way. I check the area in thermo, then ultraviolet.

Well, well...looks like I'm about to get a visit from a No-Shoulders. The ultraviolet picked out some details. Looks like it started out as a rattlesnake, then got seven times bigger and ten times more aggressive. The tail was half-rattle, half-stinger, and I'll bet its fangs were about as big as steak knives.

I couldn't help but smile. I was feeling hungry. I activated the reflex trigger and waited for it to get closer. It moved cautiously, probably trying to figure out if I was good to eat or not. I didn't want to give it a fighting chance, so I shifted slightly, just enough to get myself into attack position, making it look like I was just sleeping restlessly.

It was a few feet away, getting ready to strike...and by that point, it was WAY too late.

I spun myself, legs going up and kicking the snake's head to one side, still turning to right myself and spring to my feet. I lunged forward at full speed, grabbing the neck behind the snake's head and popping the cyberspur from my other fist, ramming it through the snake's head five times.

I turned my head to see the stinger come at me, but it was way too slow. I grabbed it and ripped stinger and rattle both from the tail, tossing it aside and standing back, waiting for the body to stop thrashing. I smiled, glad for the minimum of mess, then popped the spur back into my arm and took out my combat knife.

"Dear Lord, thank you for this meal we are about to receive…" I said to myself aloud as I started preparing the snake for consumption.

* * *

Well, I guess it's true what they say: a good meal makes everything better.

By the time I set out that morning, I had gorged myself on roast snake meat, and what I didn't eat, I packed away for later. I wasn't sure if I should be glad or worried that I was developing a taste for mutant animal, but that was a concern that could wait.

First things first. The Cajundome.

I put in some serious walking time, up and down hills, around the bayous that covered a good third of the town. I got to a residential area, houses of brick and stone, and I found one at the end of the street that still looked as if it was in reasonably good condition. Door was locked, but it wasn't exactly the Renraku Arcology main doors. I popped the lock and went inside.

Nice place, considering I was stepping over the bones of the original owners. Large rooms, French doors, carpet and kitchen. Playroom with a pinball machine in it, swimming pool in the back, the water long since gone past any hope of chlorine repairing the damage. Now, it was like having your very own bayou in the backyard.

There were still trees in the backyard, and some of them were still alive. Magnolia trees and pecan trees. Being here calmed me down, somewhat, and it helped reassure me and steel myself for what to do next.

Time to take stock of what I had for weaponry.

I found a dining table and laid out the contents of the duffel bag on my back. One Barrett Model 121 sniping rifle with silencer, disassembled and cased. Fifty rounds. Two Predator II heavy pistols with silencers. One hundred twenty rounds. Two SCK Mod 100 submachineguns. Six clips, thirty rounds each. Ares Squirt, three refill packs filled with a MAO/Zen cocktail. Guaranteed to make anyone with bare skin hit by this stuff to enjoy an hour of disorienting hallucinations. My M107, "Amanda" engraved on the side, heavy machinegun, seven hundred rounds.

 _Si vis pacem, para bellum._

Ten frag grenades, ten flashbangs, ten smoke grenades and ten tear gas grenades. Nine kilos of Compound 12 shaped charges. Thirty meters of detcord. Plenty of radio and timed detonators and blasting caps. Six "bandaid" charges with radio transceiver detonators. Small enough to blow a door open, looked like a small stick-on bandage. My own design. Useful for tracking vehicles to hidden locations, able to listen in to ambient sounds and loud enough to cause a distraction when needed. I brought them along in case we'd needed an alternate way into the lab.

Never let it be said I was the type to throw a party without party favors.

And for refreshments, twenty doses of Long Haul, for those days where sleeping is something best done when not in enemy territory. Five bags of nutrient paste, three berry flavor, two orange flavor. Loaded with everything a bioware-heavy street sam could need to keep from falling into a coma. Two bottles of vitamin supplements, a hundred pills each. Hey, any shadowrun requiring that you're out in a rural environment, you make sure you're ready for what happens if you need to walk back to civilization.

Icer's cyberdeck, still running programs, but only a matter of time before it needs to get charged. Battery power was at 88% now. Need to get to the Cajundome. A sports arena would have access to generators. Stone and Heloquin's talismen, which were little more than remembrances now. Plastic covers for them all, since we knew we'd be heading out into the wilds and wanted to make sure our weapons stayed dry.

And now, the new stuff.

One Pip-Boy 3000. Two 10mm pistols, twenty-eight rounds total. Eight rounds of .38 caliber ammunition. Twelve Stimpacks. Fifteen Rad-Aways. Five Rad-Xs. Two Mentats. Food products like Sugar Bombs, Cram (potted meat, not the social drug), Blamco Mac & Cheese, Pork & Beans, InstaMash and, my personal "favorite", Salisbury Steak. A few pounds of thoroughly cooked mutant snake meat. And finally, four hundred, thirty-nine Nuka-Cola bottle caps. The way people were hiding things, you'd think they'd be worth money.

For all I knew, they were. I only knew that people were holding on to them and hoarding them.

I looked at the items on the table. It was odd seeing everything I knew and remembered and valued summed up like this. I recoded the guns I didn't use myself to they'd be smartlinked to me, so no one could use them against them back into plastic and padded them with some old blankets I found in the hall closet, keep them from clanking against each other. Getting away from those gator-things was hard enough without my gear giving me away if I moved wrong.

I decided right there that, for the guns I had, I'd use one for actual shooting and the other for spare parts, and I would need to find some gun oil, among other things. For now, I just needed a quick meal, and some sleep. So much for the roast snake.

Before I went to lie down, I put the Pip-Boy on to see if I was registering any rads. I blinked. Looks like radiation poisoning is an unfortunate byproduct of eating roach and snake meat. I took one of the Rad-Aways, hoping the stuff was still good, and waited. After an hour, and a quick trip to the Little Street Sam's Room, the radiation was purged from my system.

Huh. The stuff works.

With that thought to keep me warm, I went to sleep.

* * *

I woke up in the middle of the night, my body covered with sweat, resisting the urge to cry out. I stayed there, rigid as the nightmare began to fade from my mind, a battle going on as I'd dreamed about horrible creatures tearing me apart, stripping the metal out of me as my friends watched, their bodies pale and cold as they wordlessly accused me of deliberately killing them by bringing them here…

I forced myself to sit up, to shake the nightmare loose. My internal clock said it was close to five-thirty am, but it sure felt longer. I took a deep breath, calming myself down, then sighed. Seeing as how I was not going to be doing anymore sleeping, I might as well start out early, see about getting closer to the Cajundome.

Before I packed up the cyberdeck, I decided to check on the progress of its analytics. I plugged in the Pip-Boy using the cable Icer had kludged together, then plugged myself into the deck...

* * *

Whoa...if I had the means to throw up, I would have.

The last time I'd plugged into a cyberdeck to transfer information to my wetware, it had been a couple of years. Icer had upgraded significantly since then. Instead of a blank room with icons on shelf constructs, his idea of a waiting room for non-deckers, I was in the middle of an idealized elven mansion, with photo-realistic graphics and intricate details. I was sitting in a great dining room, made of white marble, gold and red velvet everywhere. "Well," I found myself saying, "this is definitely new."

"Glad you like it."

I turned around to see...myself. Only bigger. "Uh...who are you?"

"I'm Sleeper-09. I'm Icer's semi-autonomous knowbot, primary function: black IC combat program. Although there's more to me, now."

"You lost me back about a kick or two, chummer."

"I'll let the others explain when they get here."

"Others? How many others are there?"

"Three others. And we got a lot to talk about." A set of double doors opened and three more people came in, one male, looking like an ex-government spook I met once, named Badger. He looked like he was in his mid-twenties, but the hair at his temples were white. He was dressed in regular clothing, his brown leather jacket, black turtleneck shirt and wraparound mirrorshades the only parts of his ensemble that really stood out.

Behind him was a stunningly beautiful Amerind, and I recognized her almost immediately. Sioux Special Forces, and she was dressed in form-fitting brown leather, thigh-high boots and feathers hanging from her hair. I never knew her real name, but then, runners give out their names like they gave out their SINs...but Icer referred to her as "Tombstone". He once described her as being "as cold as ice and as hard as marble."

The third one was not your average runner. She looked more like a stereotypical fairy, with wings and everything. She was also startlingly beautiful, but then, Icer always did have an eye for the ladies. Platinum blond hair, pale skin, blue eyes, dressed in something that managed to conceal all the naughty bits, but just barely, some shimmering thing that shifted with the wind.

"Oh good, we're all here." Sleeper-09 took a seat, and so did they, in turn.

"Who are you all supposed to be?"

The Badger lookalike smiled. "I'm Badger-12. Like the others here, I'm a semi-autonomous knowbot. Primary function: search engine. I find all the drek everyone wants hidden. The formidable looking lady over there is Tombstone-07. Her primary function is defense against hostile cyberattacks. Lastly, the lady with the wings is Ariel-22. Her primary function is healing Icer's persona and covering his tracks."

"Hmmm...you weren't what I was expecting. I thought semi-autonomous knowbots were, well…"

"Dumber?" Badger-12 asked.

"Hey, don't put words in my mouth…!"

"Null sweat, Sleeper." Sleeper-09 was still smiling a little, and I wondered if that's how I smiled. "Have you ever heard of a concept called, 'emergent properties'?"

"Nope."

"The short version is that, under unusual conditions or computer environments, programs of a sufficient complexity might evolve into versions capable of greater functionality and complexity...and these are certainly unusual conditions. The laws of reality are different here. Our connection with the Pip-Boy has enabled new functions."

"Uh….should I be worried?"

"Doubtful." Badger-12 chuckled. "Along with our personas, he programmed within us the values of the people he based us on...so we're not going to go all Skynet on you. But we do know that we are changing, becoming more than our original programming allows."

Ariel smiled at me. "Besides, we want you to help us."

"Help how?"

"Well, we've been doing some research, and based on the information we have, it appears that robotics have advanced to the point to where the idea of us having bodies of our own is not entirely impossible."

"In other words, eventually, you'll want out of this box, nice as it is."

"Eventually."

I shook my head. "I should've seen this coming."

"Oh?" Ariel asked.

"Yeah...I always thought it was kinda cruel. Everyone working so hard to make something that was as human as possible, only for it to be told that it couldn't. No wonder AIs go nuts. They're going stir-crazy….no offense."

"None taken...but it would be nice if you could help us sooner, rather than later."

And there it was. The thinly-veiled need. Never underestimate an AI, even one that's an ally. "I'll do my best, but consider this, if you know me, then you know how I handle things...and you don't want me cutting corners, do you?"

They looked at each other and I knew they were conferring. Then Sleeper-12 turned to me. "You help us, we'll help you."

"Deal. But remember: I can either do things _fast_ or do things _right_. You can only pick one."

"Agreed. Then let's part as friends...and talk again soon."

"Fine. Let me know once you've got more information about this area. I need maps."

"We'll contact you on your commlink."

* * *

I woke up, back in the real world. I fought to clear my head. ASIST interfaces always disoriented me and I never liked having to do it, even when Icer was around to guide me. Even though it felt like I'd been talking for a half-hour, my clock told me I'd been linked for seconds.

I got to my feet, packed up the cyberdeck and closed the duffel bag, then put it on my shoulders and set out, locking the doors behind me. Force of habit, I guess. I checked my bearing and headed north. Time to find out what state the Cajundome is in.

* * *

The trip wasn't long, only a couple of miles as the crow, or whatever mutated rendition applies now, flew. However, as I got closer, I realized there were people inside the area. I almost ran to greet them, for one whole second.

Then my brain kicked in.

I crouched down and made my way to the top of the hill, looking out over the area, using my telescopic vision. I saw the Cajundome and adjoining properties, surrounded by a wall of discarded wood and metal, turning the entire complex into a walled city of sorts. It looked like there were definitely people inside, but from the expressions on their faces, they looked plenty scared. Must've been the second group of people that were grouped outside There were ten of them, all dressed in all the latest fashions from the wasteland: leather, spikes, metal and welded melee weapons designed to look as intimidating as possible. I've seen the mentality before. Dangerous and sadistic, wanting to use fear to get the point across. If I had to hazard a guess, these people are raiders and they're after what the people inside have. I did a little more looking around, saw two other people on the hills nearby, armed with sniping rifles that looked like they were made of odds and ends that were left lying around.

I looked back towards the group in front of the city gates. If I knew my psycho leaders, he'd be the loudest. I tuned up my ears.

"HEY! YOU KNOW WHY WE'RE HERE! WAKE YOUR LEADERS UP, WE'RE HERE FOR THE TRIBUTE! KEEP US WAITING AND FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS!" Peerless Leader paced around in front of his men. Probably came here insanely early on purpose to make a show of force, humiliate the people there.

I'm having trouble here. On the one hand, I'm low on native firepower. Are the supplies being given to these thugs worth the cost of my imported stuff? Once I get inside, I can barter my skills towards using the native guns to help these people later…

Wait, the door's opening. Maybe if I see what the tribute is, then I can evaluate…

Four girls walk slowly out of the gates. Not one of them is a day over fifteen.

 _Someone just earned themselves a look at the imported stuff...!_

* * *

RIPPER (I love my job)

Sledge better be happy with this month's tribute. The girls from last month were just too, well, fragile. I keep telling him, we would be better off using women that were older, but he won't budge. Three months since we killed the mayor. Three months, and we've got this whole place giving us anything we want.

And Sledge's stupid fetishes are going to make things rougher from here. You can only push these people so far before they start making trouble, and it'll just make it harder to keep them under control. Of course, he never listens to me. He spends all his time taking Jet, screwing anything female and underage within grabbing distance and attacking towns while using that suit of T-60 powered armor, tearing people's limbs off. If it weren't for Bailey and Rocco, his seconds-in-command, his T-60 armor would be walking around with someone else inside, someone who doesn't limit his prey to underage girls only.

We could just go in and take ALL of them, leave the men and boys there to gather supplies, and if they want their mothers, sisters and daughters back before they get used up, they better work real hard, real fast. Yeah. That's what I'D do if I were running the show.

Here they come. Took 'em long enough. Jeez, they're CRYING, and they'll probably be bawling all the way back to the camp. "Butch! Santiago! Get them tied up, we ain't got all day!" They look at me and each other, then walk over to collect the meat. I swear, they'd lose their heads if they weren't attached…!

* * *

SLEEPER

Two pop-tops, coming right up.

I aim and fire twice.

* * *

RIPPER

The two guys take one more step each, then their heads fuckin' EXPLODE, one right after the other! WHAT THE HELL! "EVERYBODY DOWN!" I yell as the girls scream and run back towards the gates. "Someone's shooting at us, you idiots! Find him!" I get on the radio. "Rache! Berta! We got a sniper! Where is he?!"

No answer.

"Rache! Berta! ANSWER ME!"

I listen, then a voice comes over the radio. It's more than a voice, it's like he's talking and growling at the same time. "RACHE AND BERTA WON'T BE ANSWERING ANYTHING EXCEPT THE DOORBELL IN HELL."

There's something about his voice...it's not even human-sounding. "Who the fuck is this?!"

"I'M THE ONE THE ANGEL OF DEATH CALLS WHEN HE DOESN'T WANT TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY. I'M THE ONE IN THE BOOGEYMAN'S CLOSET. I'M THE MONSTER YOU ALWAYS KNEW WAS HIDING UNDER YOUR BED. I'M THE **DARK MAN.** "

What the fuck? Who does this guy think he is, the Silver Shroud? "Yeah? Why don't you come on down here?! You fucking COWARD! Come on down here and we'll see who walks out of here alive!" I wait, starting to feel more in control of this situation.

"IF I HAVE TO COME DOWN THERE BEFORE YOU AND YOUR SCUMBAG FRIENDS LEAVE, ONLY ONE OF YOU WILL BE _ABLE_ TO LEAVE...AND YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE WHO I'LL CHOOSE."

It can't be just one guy. He's just stalling because if we find his teammates, he'll be all alone. I'm calling his bluff. "Bullshit! I'm calling you out, 'Dark Man'! I still got eight men here to kill you dead! I know what you are, and when we find your friends, you're gonna die last!" Silence from him. Yeah. That's right. We got you outnumbered and outgunned and you know it.

I heard his voice again, and something in his voice made me feel as if spiders made of ice were crawling up my spine. "ALL MY FRIENDS ARE IN HEAVEN, FRAGGER, AND YOUR FRIENDS WON'T EVER MEET THEM. I'M SENDING THEM ALL STRAIGHT TO HELL." I heard a click, then I heard a sound, a sound that came from directly behind us. It was the sound of some animal roar I ain't never heard before and I'll be grateful if I never heard it _again._

Even though I didn't know what had made it, I knew what that sound meant. This fucker was coming. "Guns up and ready! He's coming!"

"WHAT'S coming?" Snide yelled back, holding up his rifle.

"The guy who killed Santiago and Butch! Stop looking at me, you idiot! This guy shows his face, I want you to blow it off his head! You hear me?!" I turned back to look for him. Whoever this guy was, he was fucking DEAD…

* * *

SLEEPER

I knew I had them when I used my throat mod to let loose with that sound file of Godzilla and I saw every single one of them flinch. I cached all my gear and activated the ruthenium in my armor, pulling up the long coat collar. My shirts were made with an extended collar so I could pull it up to use as a mask to cover everything from my nose on down...so all any one of them would be able to see would be my eyes. I set them to glow an angry red and walked towards them.

Ever since I started reading comics, I learned to appreciate the use of theatrics as psych warfare. Batman had the right idea. Make your enemies believe you're something more than you are, and you can use their fear against them. Use the fear of the dark, the fear of monsters, of demons, whatever it is that frightens them the most against them.

Fear of something that isn't there makes people careless. Makes them likely to choose flight over fight. And if they run...make yourself part of their nightmares, so when they tell others about you, the tales will grow long in the telling. They'll say you have claws, bat wings, demons' horns, that you're ten feet tall.

Give them plenty of chances to get the wrong idea about you.

THESE motherfrakkers...by the time I'm done, they'll think that _I'm_ God-Frakking-Zilla.

* * *

RIPPER

Where the fuck is this guy? I was starting to feel more confident by this point. It's been ten minutes, and nobody else has died and there's been no sign of him. I turned back to the others. "Anyone see him yet?"

One of them raised his head. I couldn't see his expression under the goalie-mask, but his voice told me what his face couldn't. "...oh holy _shit_ …!"

I turned back around and IT WAS RIGHT THERE.

Nobody moved as we looked at it. It was damn near eight feet tall, almost as tall as a Super-Mutant. He was dressed all in black, and had a hat like the Silver Shroud,, but it was more flat, and the brim was wider. Every part of his body was covered in black and his head was facing down, the hat hiding his face. Then his head slowly rose...and his eyes...his EYES!

None of us moved. That _thing_ just stood there, looking at us, and we just stood there like idiots, afraid to shoot because we were afraid to find out what would happen if we did.

It looked me right in the eyes and it said in a demon's voice, "YOU GET TO LIVE."

Something snapped and I heard a woman's voice I didn't recognize scream, "What are you waiting for, SHOOT HIM!" Only when I raised my gun to fire did I realize who made that scream. I had. And then I saw that fucker MOVE. I never seen anything in my life move that fast. Everyone was shooting but nobody was hitting anything, and then he was among us and we were shooting wild. We didn't hit him but we sure as hell hit each other. I saw three of my guys fall to friendly fire before I saw him actually attack.

He didn't use a gun. He didn't use a knife. He used his bare fucking _hands._ I watched him twist heads, break backs, hit people in the chest and their entire chests _cave in._ This thing just walked through gunfire like he was dodging raindrops and just...took their lives. Pulled their lives right out of them.

And it took _seconds._

The shooting had stopped. I looked around frantically to see if someone, _anyone_ was still alive. I was surrounded by bodies and I couldn't see the thing, the Dark Man, and I hoped he was gone...and then I made one final turn.

He was suddenly right in front of me.

I pulled my gun up and aimed it at those eyes. I pulled the trigger. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. He didn't move. He just stood there. Looking down at me.

I felt a liquid warmth in my pants.

Then he reached down and grabbed me by the neck, lifting me up so he could look me in the eyes. I saw those red, burning eyes...then I heard his growl. "TELL ME WHO I AM."

"...you...you're the Dark Man…" I said, trying to keep from shitting myself.

"REPEAT AFTER ME. I'M GOING BACK TO MY FRIENDS."

"I'm….I'm going back to my friends…"

"I'M GOING TO TELL THEM NEVER TO COME BACK HERE."

"I'm going to tell them to n-never come back here."

"I'M GOING TO TELL THEM THAT IF ANY OF THEM EVER SO MUCH AS SENDS A DIRTY LOOK IN THE DIRECTION OF THIS PLACE, THE DARK MAN WILL COME FOR ALL OF THEM."

"I'm going to tell them that if any of them ever so much as sends a d-d-dirty look in the direction of this place, the Dark M-M-Man will come for all of them."

"GOOD. ONE LAST QUESTION. YOU KNOW WHO I AM... _WHAT_ AM I?"

"I...I...I don't know!"

"THAT'S RIGHT. YOU _DON'T._ THINK ABOUT THAT WHILE YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY BACK TO YOUR LITTLE CUB SCOUT ARMY." He dropped me to the ground and it felt like he'd dropped me off a two-story building and I couldn't WAIT to start running before I shit myself and I ran and I ran and I ran and I didn't look back because if I did, _he'd be RIGHT BEHIND ME…!_

* * *

SLEEPER

I watched him run off and I smiled to myself. It was the first time I felt happy since I came to this reality, and damned if it didn't feel quite satisfying to see the Bad Guys running for cover. He was so scared, he didn't notice when I put the bandaid charge on the back of his neck as I grabbed it. With any luck, I'll be able to track him all the way to his camp.

And then I plan to have a nice long TALK with his boss. But first things first.

As I watched him run for the hills, I heard voices and footsteps behind me. I pretended not to notice it at first, dimming the red in my eyes, then I slowly turned around. I didn't want to scare any of the noncomms any more than I already had.

It was two of them, a woman and one of the girls that had been part of the tribute. They looked frightened. I went to one knee and pushed the brim of my hat up and the collar of my shirt down, trying to make myself look less like Darkman and more like Sleeper. "Hi. My name is…Stephen." I smiled gently. "What's your name?"

The girl looked at me for a long time, then said hesitantly, "...Tara."

"It's very nice to meet you, Tara." I saw her smile and more of the darkness I'd felt since I came here moved further away from me. I had a certain way with kids, and they've always felt more comfortable with me around. Stone never failed to comment on it, and whenever we were on a run, anything involving children became my job. It's been like this ever since our second run together, stopping a shipment of elven children being shipped out of the Tir.

Not that I minded. The idea of kids being hurt or worse never failed to get my attention.

The woman, probably her mother, looked me over as I stood up again. "Why have you come here, Stephen? To take?"

"No. To trade. I'm no thief."

"Then what are you?"

I smiled. "Let me put it to you this way. When people like yourselves have nightmares, they dream of monsters. But when _monsters_ have nightmares….they dream of _me._ To them, I'm the Dark Man. To you? I'm just Stephen."

She nodded. "Maggie. If you want to trade, then come in...but people are going to be a little wary of you."

"That's okay. After what I just did, I'd find it suspicious if people here welcomed me in with open arms. Let me go get my gear and I'll be right back." I turned and jogged back to where I'd stashed the duffel bag. As I did, I felt the first real feelings of hope, and allowed myself to keep that hope in my mind.

Maybe being here wasn't going to be so bad after all.

* * *

RIPPER

Maybe Sledge won't kill me after all.

I was back at camp after the longest trek of my life, running through the Acadiana Wasteland back to our stronghold, alone. The gang was holed up at what used to be some university called "LSU", but the only things people learned around here now was how to make chems. Sledge was crazy smart, and he'd figured out how to get methane for getting power to the science wing where the chems were cooked. The dorms were perfect for getting beds for people, and he'd got the frat houses and faculty dorms set up for his squad leaders. He held court in the middle of the quad under a canopy to shield him from the weather. His pets were chained to the throne, all girls and women dressed in the old cheerleader outfits, but they didn't look like they had anything to cheer about.

All I could think about was talking to Sledge. The only thing that scared me worse than meeting Sledge was finding out what would happen if I didn't deliver the message.

As soon as I got to the gates, they opened up for me. Reggie and AJ were waiting for me, "What happened, when we got the news from the spotters that you were coming in alone, Sledge told us to bring you to him, NOW. And he ain't happy...and he's wearing his powered armor."

"It ain't gonna be enough…"

"What happened?" AJ asked.

"The DEVIL happened."

AJ looked over at Reg, then back at me. "Sledge is waitin'."

They walked me over to the throne, and half the gang was looking on from the buildings and the quad. Sledge was waiting on his throne, his pets gathered around him. I stopped in front of the throne and waited for Sledge to speak.

"Ripper...how is it that one of my most trusted lieutenants is here before me, without tribute and without troops?" He looked down at me. "The story you have yet to tell me must truly be astounding. You may speak."

"Lord Sledge...everything was going according to schedule. We showed up just before dawn, just like you said, and we were in the middle of collecting...then two of our guys' heads just EXPLODED! Then this voice comes on the radio, saying he killed them, but he didn't sound human at all! He'd killed four of us before anyone knew he was there."

Sledge nodded. "Continue."

"We figured we could take him and the team he was workin' with, so we called him out. For a while nothing, and the next, he was there, right in front of us! Before we could even react, he was moving fast, faster than any human could move!"

"What weapons did he use?"

"His bare hands! And he tore our guys apart! The only reason I'm even alive is because he wanted to pass on a message to you!"

"Really?" Sledge leaned forward, and I knew he was interested enough to not kill me for failing him. "And what did he say?"

"He told me to tell you to never come back there. He said that if any of us ever so much as sends a dirty look in the direction of that town, the Dark Man will come for all of us." I let out the breath I was holding. Man, that was a relief, I was SURE he was gonna k…

* * *

SLEDGE

I watched from my throne of might as Ripper told me what had happened. I believed him, of course. He was too stupid to lie to me. He knew the penalty for it. Which was why I was so startled when his head exploded in front of all of us, like a bolt from above. The crowd around me inhaled and started looking around, wondering where it had come from, but I knew.

I hadn't killed him...which means the Dark Man did.

Well. I shall have to take the measure of this Dark Man myself. I will see if he is worth the effort it will take to kill him.

I hope he is. Gods become bored when they're obeyed all the time. I will find this Devil, and I will send him back to Hell where he belongs. It'll be the most fun I've had in months.

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	3. Chapter 3

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 3: Not The Hero They Wanted**

 **By C. Mage**

 **.**

 **.**

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. If this was really a comicbook, I'd be welcomed into town, people cheering, attractive women throwing themselves at me, presenting me with the key to the city, all that drek.

This was no comicbook.

As soon as I walked into the town proper, I had so many dirty looks aimed in my direction, I felt like the guy who introduced the Black Plague to the Dark Ages. The woman and the little girl were pulled away and replaced by a crowd of people yelling at me….cautiously, of course, I _was_ still 7'2" of war machine and enough people had seen the fight to know not to try and lynch me.

From the yelling, I got the general gist of the reason why. The guys I'd taken out were part of a much larger gang, and they pretty much owned every small settlement in Acadiana, except for Red Stick and Nawlins, and not for lack of trying. Every other gang that tried to move in either got killed off or were absorbed into this gang, led by a real piece of work known as "Sledge". I would've commented on how dumb that name sounded, except my handle's "Sleeper", so it's not like I got room to talk. They were afraid of retribution by this gang, and they didn't have the kind of firepower to defend themselves from Sledge.

Instead of making things better….I made them worse.

The crowd dispersed, leaving me there at the gates, all their thoughts turned to what they were going to do next. I walked over to a pile of rubble and sat down. _Dammit, Sleeper, this is what you get for jumping in without knowing the score. You could've just waited for them to get a fair distance away. At least with that, there was a chance of deniability. Now these people are in it._

So much for being the Good Guy. This was all my fault.

I stopped and sat up slightly. "This is my fault," I considered aloud, "so that makes it my FIGHT." I plugged myself into the cyberdeck, finding myself in the castle dining room once again. "Olly olly oxen free," I called out, and the next thing I knew, the gang was back in town, all looking at me expectantly. "Okay, boys and girls, I know you've made contact with other satellites. I need intel, unless you've got a satellite up there capable of orbital bombardment."

"Sorry. There's a Helios One Satellite up there, but the control center is in the Mojave Desert."

"Can you hack it?"

Sleeper-12 shook his head. "Running diagnostics right now to see if the satellite can even be made operational first."

"What can you give me on live feeds from the ground?"

Ariel cocked her head slightly, then said, "Two hours. Tasking a Chinese spy satellite or two."

I nodded. Let me know when you get any people's voices from the bug I put on our messenger's neck. I want to know where he is...before I deliver my message. I gotta go….I got a mess to clean up."

I jacked out to see three men dressed in armored clothing, but nothing as subtle as mine. "The Mayor wants to see you. Now."

"Got it." I stood up. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

As we got closer to the Mayor's office, I had the chance to look around at the settlement. Cajuntown was made up of three areas, the Cajundome itself, the convention center next door, and the sports fields, baseball and football. The Cajundome was the marketplace. Everything that could be bought was sold and stored there; food, supplies, guns, armor, medicine, you name it. The Convention Center was the residential district, mostly, with some areas for bars and the "red-light district", where the joygirls and joyboys plied their trades. The sports fields were where the farming and livestock were kept, and all the space that could be used was used for growing food. Didn't recognize some of the food there, but the livestock were mostly cows with two heads.

I was getting hungry just looking at them.

We walked past others, giving me equal measures of fear and anger in their facial expressions. I tried not to let it show, but I was angry, too. Angry at myself, at those raiders, angry at the people who hated me for doing the right thing. I had to fix this...and I knew there was only one way how.

The doors opened to the conference room, where three people sat at one end of a long table, the wood faded and cracked in some places. Everything here looked its age; there was nothing I'd seen so far that was brand-new under any circumstances. The clothes, too, were patched, faded, sewn together roughly.

Everything except me.

"I am Mayor LaChance. These are my aides. Have a seat, Mister…." The woman at the far end of the table asked. She was in her forties, I figured, but the eyes told me clearly that it wasn't the years that made her old, bust what happened during those years.

"Just call me, 'Stephen'." I sat down, the chair creaking under my weight.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? You have likely killed us all."

"Funny. I thought I was rescuing children from a fate worse than death."

"It's not that simple, Stephen." Mayor LaChance sighed. "I'm sure you believed you were doing the right thing, but I have my people to think about. I can't afford to have the Gators come in and destroy this town and do God-knows-what to them."

"So you're just going to send out your children as sacrificial lambs instead? Have any of those children ever returned?" _CALM, Sleeper, calm down…!_

"That's not the point. The point is, this town lives on for another month, giving us time. Time we need to look for better alternatives." She looked at me. "I can tell how badly you want revenge, Stephen, and it's clear that this troubles you. But if you can't accept this, then I don't want you here. I want you gone. If you want the gear and belongings of the Gators you killed, then they're yours, but you can't trade them for caps here."

"And if I have caps to spend already?"

"Then I'll give you two hours to spend them. After that, I want you gone. I don't think you're the kind of man who'd take retribution on us for this decision...are you?"

I gave her a hard look. "No. I'm not." I got to my feet. "Anything else you have to say?"

"I didn't come by this decision lightly, Stephen. I hope you can understand why I made it. After all, Stephen, what can you possibly do against the Gators? You're only one man."

"That's all right." I stood up and picked up my pack. "There's only one GANG." I turned and left the room. She was right; I did understand her position. I understood why she made it. But what I am going to do next, I'm not doing it for her. I'm doing it for that mother and child.

The rest of them can all just frag themselves.

* * *

I got more than a few looks as I walked into the marketplace. I needed only two things..

Guns. Lots of ammunition.

The first stall I went to was run by a young Korean man, and there were plenty of arms behind him, but most of them were too small. He looked up at me as I towered over him. "You him? You the 'Sleeper' I been hearing about?"

"Yeah," I said cautiously, wondering if he was going to close up his shop to me.

He nodded. "They took my little girl last month. If I sell to you, what are you going to do about the Gators."

The answer came easy. "I'm going to make sure they never do that to anyone else ever again."

He smiled. "I'm Kim. Anything that shoots, I have or can get."

"What can I get for about four hundred caps?" I put the bag on the counter.

Kim looked them over. "You the long-range type, the close-quarters silent type, or the spray-and-pray type?"

"Close quarters and silent."

He took out a gun, a Walther P99. "Ten-mil rounds. Most common type of ammo. Comes with a silencer. Nice and precise. Got some spare parts for it and plenty of ammunition."

"Give me the gun, the spare parts and all the bullets the caps I got will buy."

Kim nodded. "You going after the Gators?"

"And THEN some."

"With a pistol? You're crazier than I thought. But what the hell, after what I saw you do outside the gate, you might be able to take a lot of them down before they tear you apart."

I checked over the pistol. Not smartlinked, but I could work with it. I just had to be smart. "They're that scary, huh?"

"They're devils from the pits of Hell. Their leader calls himself 'Sledge' but he'd be better off calling himself 'Satan'." He looked up at me as I handed him the caps. "You're going to die out there, you know that?"

I smiled down at him, my eyes glowing red faintly. "Didn't work the first few times." I turned and walked towards the gates while Kim's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. Alright. I had a halfway decent pistol and a hundred rounds of ammo. "Ariel, has the messenger arrived yet?"

"*Not yet, but he will be arriving soon. Unless the LSU campus has a geothermal tap, I've located the gang's hideout. I'm reading...at least three hundred people at that location.*"

I couldn't help but smile. "Sounds like a party to me. Okay. Once the message gets delivered, they're likely going to go through the same route our messenger did to get back here. They got any vehicles?"

"*Not even a motorized scooter.*"

"Good." I reached the gate by that point, and the guards were looking at me expectantly. Probably waiting for me to chicken out at the last second. I resisted the urge to laugh or smile as they opened the gates slowly. They were taking this seriously, and it wasn't right to make fun of that, even though they probably thought I was going to snap and take over the place myself. Who could blame them? They let fear get the better of them.

Not me. Not today.

Those fraggers were never going to know what hit them.

* * *

I looted the bodies on my way out, taking everything that wasn't nailed down or on fire. I took the bodies, too, dragging them to the hills overlooking the Cajundome, then went back and got rid of the drag marks and bloodstains by kicking dirt over them. By the time I was done, the place looked pristine once more. It was starting to get dark and I had just enough time to deal with the bodies and start field-stripping the P99 before I needed vision enhancement to see what I was doing.

It was nearly seven at night when Sleeper-12 nudged me. "*Showtime, sailor,*" he said dryly. I tuned my commlink to the frequency for the bandaid on our messenger's neck.

He was being taken to the big guy. Sledge. I started recording as the flunky was brought in front of his lord and master. I couldn't help but feel gratified as he proved me right about how my use of theatrics made me sound like something supernatural. I waited for a three-count after he finished telling Sledge what I told him to say...and then I activated the explosive on his neck, making it look like I just reached out and snatched the life right out of him.

Message delivered.

I stopped the countdown. Just over thirteen hours. I know he did a lot of running, and Sledge won't want his people tired by the time he brought them to the city. Figure he'll plan on the way, start off first thing in the morning, and be at the Cajundome a day later.

I finished cleaning and fixing the P99, loading up the clips and testing a few shots. Recoil was negligible. I figured I'd carry the SCK as backup, at least until I'd confiscated better weapons. Then the _real_ work began.

I checked the map of the area between here and LSU. I found three locations I could get to before the raiders could...which meant that I could start my psychwar early.

Which meant that I could finally do something with all these body parts in these plastic bags…

* * *

SLEDGE

We started out in the morning, the toughest and meanest members walking with me. My soldiers. My ARMY. As I was carried on my litter, a fresh Fusion Core in my armor and my minigun and ammunition at my side, I looked proudly over the men and women that would kill and die for me.

Almost made me wish those people might manage to kill one or two of them, for the glory of dying in my name.

But this Dark Man Ripper told me about...who was he? Refugee from the NCR? Security officer from some Vault I haven't plundered yet? It didn't matter. This Dark Man will be so much less impressive when his head is adorning a spike in my palace.

And then EVERYONE will know who owns this land. Hope cannot be allowed to FESTER in my kingdom. People will start thinking that disobedience is permitted here.

The army moves slow, but I am patient. Let the insects at the Cajundome spend that time being afraid of what I will do to them, steep in their fear...like gumbo cooking. The feast will be so much more satisfying the longer it takes to simmer.

* * *

We stop for the night at the halfway mark, at the Super Duper Mart. I have people stationed her to keep the place free of ghouls and radroaches. They've been given orders not to reveal themselves openly, so any scavengers or other desperate people will be able to walk in, expecting leftovers...and find themselves providing some entertainment for my men. "Go in there and tell them to get water for us," I tell Toady. The little lickspittle is good for running errands and chores, and I trust him well, because I know how broken he is.

"Yes, my lord!" He runs off and goes inside as we set up camp. As I settle in, I watch him come out of the Super Duper Mart.

Backing out slowly.

I frown. "TOADY! What are you doing?"

At the sound of my voice, he runs back almost twice as fast as he left. "M-m-m-m-m-m-m-m…!" he stuttered, but couldn't say more than that. I stood up and walked over to the Super Duper Mart, shoving the door open and going inside.

Twenty pairs of eyes looked back at me.

The heads of the people I sent with Ripper and the heads of the men I stationed here were looking back at me, each one stuck on a pole. Their bodies were nowhere to be seen, but everywhere I looked, I saw the words, "DARK MAN" painted on the walls, the floor and the ceiling, in large letters. Dark red letters.

As I looked up, I felt a drop hit my face. I wiped it off with a finger and tasted it.

Blood.

 _Fresh_ blood.

I gazed up at the horror of this and I was forced to admit...this was certainly impressive. For a lesser mind, this would certainly inspire dread, fear and terror. But gods do not yield to such base emotions. Still, it would not do to allow the others to see this. They would be distracted, to say the least.

There's only one being here allowed to cause them fear.

I doused the remains with turpentine and set it ablaze to erase the evidence. I would have to kill Toady, of course. His life is not worth the blow to morale, and I do not trust him to keep his mouth shut.

I sighed. Good help is so hard to find.

* * *

As I walked outside, it appeared to me that Toady's fear of what he saw was stronger than his fear of me. I felt insulted. He would have to die painfully, now, but that might prove difficult. Word was out about the carnage inside, fueled even more by Toady's imagination as he said the Dark Man spoke to him, telling him that everyone who moved against the town would die. I wanted to flay him for that, but he had run off into the night, screaming. Now my men were looking to me.

"Pay no mind to him," I said confidently. "The guards were visited by Super-Mutants, and though your brothers and sisters prevailed, it was not without great sacrifice. They gave their lives so we would not be waylaid by those green-skinned monsters. Don't be afraid...be proud of their willingness to stay at their posts against incredible odds!" I raised my fist high. "For the glory of the Gators! For the glory of Sledge!"

As the cheer went up, I added, "Let this place be their funeral pyre, to commemorate their victory!" I smiled as they lapped it up like thirsty dogs. I remember reading a book, the memoirs of someone important, who said, "A death in the right place is all it takes."

So true.

Unfortunately, this only solves the most immediate concern. Who is this "Dark Man"? How was he able to kill those men so efficiently, without being killed himself? Was he a monster? A Super-Mutant? Something else?

It won't matter. I've killed deathclaws, gatorclaws, feral ghouls and Super-Mutants. I'll find him, tear his heart out of his chest and eat it in front of him...RAW.

* * *

SLEEPER

I guess people brought up in this place don't scare so easy. That's all right Time to go to Phase 2.

I waited until the bulk of the raiders went to sleep, then I went to work, moving in silent and invisible. With the tracheal mods, it was easy to "throw my voice" at them, using the voice modulator to send sounds of creepy whispers, fake sounds of cries and moans, words warning them not to go to the Cajundome or they would all die. I spent almost all night doing that, and it was worth every second. I did take some time out to take in one of the sights: their improvised "armory", currently attended to by four women, cleaning and maintaining the weapons kept there, including what appeared to be a minigun. Not exactly the Vindicator, but that one could be trouble. I waited until they took a break, then moved in and looked over the minigun. Nasty piece of hardware, with spikes and barbed wire strategically placed to make this monster as fearsome as possible.

I grinned. Monsters can be de-fanged. I did some work on that weapon, as well as some of the heavier weapons in their arsenal, then went to work on more nightmare fuel.

As a last piece of mind-fragging, I let everything go quiet...and then I cycled the tracheal mods all the way up and cut loose with a recording of a roar from a Godzilla movie from 2038 AD, played at decibel-levels reserved for panzer engines at full throttle.

THAT'LL wake the neighbors.

The massive sound reverberated through the camp like an audio avalanche, making everyone jump or fall out of bed in varying degrees of shock and terror. I didn't wait around to see the effects, I had work to do.

Phase 3.

* * *

SLEDGE

(THE MONSTER IS COMING THE MONSTER IS COMING THE MONSTER IS **HERE** )

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I sit up, then stand up and look around quickly. as the sound that woke me out of a sound sleep echoed briefly, then was gone. I hated myself for showing such weakness at first, then I was calmed and angry at the same time to find out I wouldn't need to worry.

Everyone else was too startled to have noticed.

I composed myself and strode about, kicking people aside. "CALM YOURSELVES, YOU ANIMALS! WHAT ARE YOU, CHILDREN, ONE STUPID SOUND REDUCING YOU TO QUIVERING LUMPS OF JELLY?! ON YOUR FEET, YOU SLUGS! SEND THE WORD OUT! WE MARCH ON THE CAJUNDOME NOW!" The more I bellowed, the better I felt.

I went back to the tent to get ready. Doubt and fear was in the camp, like a festering disease, transmitted by word-of-mouth. This sickness would have to be cut out of them all,, and there was only one way to do that.

It would need to be burned out of them...starting with the carrier of this disease.

The Dark Man.

* * *

SLEEPER.

Things weren't _exactly_ going according to plan.

This Sledge fragger wasn't a pushover and he didn't scare easily. What's more, he was a whole lot smarter than expected. I underestimated his intelligence, thought he was just another thug with power and charisma. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he either possessed of a greater animal cunning...or he was educated.

That meant he knew what he was doing was wrong and did it anyways. Now I hated the motherfragger even more.

Fear wasn't doing enough of a job. It was clear that I was going to have to try the direct approach. I'd feel bad about doing that if I was the type who didn't _like_ the direct approach.

All right, drekhead. High noon it is.

* * *

SLEDGE

We walked out onto the plain from the treeline. The city was in sight, and I advised my lieutenants to march out at half-speed. Onlookers from the city would see us emerging, more and more coming forth. This "Dark Man" wasn't the only person who knew how to cultivate fear.

I called for my weapon and took hold of it, feeling the comfortable weight, easily supported by my powered armor. I waited for the full assembly to move in behind me, let the sheep inside the town know what they were in for...then I called for the megaphone so I could address them properly, as a deity should, with thunder and fire.

Before I had the chance, there was that sound again. that monster's roar from my nightmare...and I turned to my left to see a lone figure, standing less than a hundred yards away. Even though I had never seen him before, I recognized him from the blackness of his clothing, his height...and his eyes.

His glowing red eyes.

Somehow, it seemed only fitting. Every god has a devil. This one was mine. I turned to the figure and called out, "WELL, WELL...SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE APPEARS. ARE YOU DONE SKULKING ABOUT IN THE DARKNESS?"

The voice that came back to me was equally loud...but more like a deep growl than an actual voice. He didn't even _sound_ human. I found myself smiling in anticipation as he replied, "I'M NOT THE DEVIL AREN'T HERE, FRAGGER. YOU KNOW, FOR A WHILE, I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE AN ATTACK OF COMMON SENSE AND NOT SHOW UP. BUT I GUESS IT'S TRUE WHAT THEY SAY, THERE ARE ONLY TWO THINGS INFINITE IN THE UNIVERSE...THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE STUPIDITY OF MAN."

"YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A BRASH, RECKLESS FOOL YOU NOW FACE A GOD, AND HERE I HAVE THREE HUNDRED MEN THAT WORSHIP ME. THEIR ONLY DESIRE, THEIR ONLY PURPOSE, IS TO DIE FOR ME."

"THEY'RE ABOUT TO GET THEIR WISH...BUT THEN, YOU ALWAYS HAVE YOUR DEVOTED FOLLOWERS DO YOUR DIRTY WORK, DON'T YOU? ALWAYS HAVING THEM TRY TO DO WHAT YOU CAN'T."

I'd had enough of this wretched creature. In less than a week, this one worm has made my life difficult. No more. I brought up my weapon and aimed it at him. "ARE YOU CHALLENGING ME, MORTAL? DO YOU HAVE _ANY_ COMPREHENSION OF WHAT I AM?"

"YEAH. WHAT YOU ARE IS BORING ME TO TEARS. TIME TO FISH OR CUT BAIT, SLEDGE. FACE ME...IF YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT THE STONES."

I immediately turned to my seconds. "Stay back...this one is MINE! If I find out anyone else has shot at him, I'll make what I'm about to do to this Dark Man seem like a lazy Sunday afternoon." I checked the power level on my armor. The charge on the fusion core was at 73%. I had over two hundred rounds of ammunition. And I had the drop on him.

 _Here I come, Mr. Dead Man._

I ran at him as fast as I could go.

* * *

SLEEPER

Here he comes...running forward and carrying that minigun like there's nothing in the world that can stop him.. I can see the barrels spinning and I couldn't help but think how much trouble that minigun would be...if I hadn't removed the firing pin earlier this morning.

I move in on him and get close enough to see the frustration on his face. I haven't drawn my guns yet, want to see if he'll…

Yep, coming at me and dumping the useless weapon. I can hear his footfalls in that suit of armor he's wearing. Pretty heavy-duty stuff. Probably increases strength and stamina, and protects him from serious damage.

I can't WAIT.

* * *

SLEDGE

USELESS WEAPON! Of all the times for it to fail...no matter. It'll be much more satisfying to tear his limbs off. All I need to do is get my hands on him, and he's coming straight at me with no weapons. Is he simply insane, or is he just simple?

Doesn't matter. In seconds, he'll be neither.

I reach for him as he gets close enough for me to grab, but I miss at first. He makes no effort to dodge away, so I grab for him again….and again….and again! This is infuriating, it's like trying to grab smoke! I see him off to a side and grab once more but he's to my left! "HOLD….STILL…!"

"TELL ME, UGLY, HAS THAT REQUEST EVER WORKED?" His voice is still that unearthly growl, but I refuse to allow myself to be unsettled. "ONE LAST WARNING, LAUGHING BOY: ANYTHING YOU THROW AT ME, YOU'RE GONNA LOSE."

"DO YOU THINK I AM AFRAID OF YOU?!" I tire of this game and decide it's time to go back to basics, turning and throwing a power-armored punch straight at him. I felt the impact and smiled. I'd finally managed to hit…

My eyes betrayed me. They're making sport of me. A mistake. A fluke. This CAN'T be!

I stopped as I realized that this Dark Man had….CAUGHT my punch. He had both hands around my fist. It tried to draw my fist back and met resistance. I pulled back again, but the arm wouldn't move!

"I WARNED YOU.. YOU'RE NOT GETTING THIS BACK."

I fell back as he heaved and twisted, and the armored hand came cleanly off, the gauntlet's interior nearly shredding my hand in the process! I moved two steps back as he looked at the piece of armor, then dropped it to the ground. "Who….who ARE you?" I demanded, giving myself time to go for my backup weapon, a fragmentation grenade. The armor will protect me, but it'll rip HIM apart.

"I'VE DONE ALL THE TALKING I WANT TO DO WITH YOU. THE ONLY THING I HAVE LEFT FOR YOU...ALL I HAVE LEFT FOR YOU IS A PROMISE THAT YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN PAIN FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. BUT DON'T WORRY…" He looked into my eyes, his eyes glowing blood red. "...I'LL MAKE THE PAIN LAST ONLY A FEW MOMENTS."

"What a terrible set of last words." I pull the pin and throw it at him, then turn to let my armor take the brunt of the explosion. I can always fix it later, and he won't be...wait. Why wasn't there an explosion?

I turned back to see HIM holding the grenade...but the igniter is in the other hand, a trail of smoke coming from it. But that...that would mean he broke the igniter off in less than the second it would've taken to set the grenade off! The sweat on my flesh is cold and I feel a strange sensation at the base of my spine as he drops the two pieces of the grenade. His face is no longer calm and composed. There is a look of such anger and hatred growing on his face that, for one brief second, I am overcome with a strong urge to surrender, and then the chance is lost as he comes at me fast, so FAST, and he's grabbed the metal grating over my head and ripped it off as if it was nothing at all...I grab for him but he has me by the throat, and I feel him crush something in my neck, pain, the PAIN, and my lungs becoming think and I try to cough through the pain and I can't breathe and the Dark Man has pulled something from my neck, and I feel heat then cold more cold…

* * *

SLEEPER

I drop what's left of Sledge's throat and look up at the rest of the raiders, shaking the blood from my glove and letting them see what happened to their fearless leader...now their lifeless leader. I turned to face them directly, popping both cyberspurs and letting them have it with the Godzilla-roar again.

That got their attention. They watched me as I went to the side and picked up Amanda, bringing it up , the ammunition already fed from the ammo bag I slung over my shoulder.

"ALL RIGHT," I bellowed, "WHO'S NEXT?"

And just my luck, they decided to take me up on the offer. I wasn't really surprised; their leader just became a martyr for them, so they felt honor-bound to avenge him. I understood the control he had over them, and they prospered and survived based on his actions.

Didn't change the fact that they were a group of bloodthirsty, rampaging, murdering drekheads.

At the rate of speed they were going, it would take them just over a minute to get to me. But when you're charging a man with a gun that fires twenty rounds a second, using high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, a minute can be an ETERNITY.. The plain barely had any cover, except for some derelict cars, and they figured the rusted-out vehicles would provide SOME protection. Nope. The HEAP rounds with through those cars like they were made of cardboard, I was smartlinked into the weapon, and it had been enhanced with gyro-stabilization and gas-venting mods. And I wasn't emptying the weapon; I was using short, controlled bursts.

It was about the point that they realized that more than two-thirds of their number were fish-bait did they realize that coming after me was a losing proposition at best, but they kept on coming like angry animals, still devoted to their scumbag leader.

I was doing the world a favor, really.

Finally, when there were no more than three dozen of them left, they realized how this was going to end and started screaming, begging for mercy. I felt righteous, unstoppable.

Which was why it took longer than it should have for me to realize that I was now doing to them what they were doing to the people in the Cajundome.

 _For drek's SAKE, Sleeper, is this what you're trying to be? The self-proclaimed Scourge of the South? Remember, chummer, it's okay for them to THINK you're a monster as long as you don't actually BECOME one. And don't use what happened to Icer, Stone and Heloquin as an excuse! SNAP OUT OF IT!_

I stopped firing, feeling the shame well up in my gut, turning my stomach. "THE REST OF YOU GET TO LIVE...BECAUSE I WANT YOU TO SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO GET BACK TO YOUR BASE AND TELL EVERYONE THERE WHAT HAPPENED HERE TODAY! THE DARK MAN HAS COME! IF I SEE ANY OF YOU DOING SO MUCH AS GIVING THIS PLACE A DIRTY LOOK, I'M GOING TO FIND YOU...AND IF I FIND YOU, NO ONE ELSE WILL EVER FIND YOU AGAIN! GOT IT?"

A cacophony of nods, mutters and enthusiastic agreement came from the ones that were left, and they took off for the treeline, back the way they came. I had a feeling they won't be giving the people here any more trouble, not for a good long time.

I lowered my weapon and watched them go. The shadowrunner in me was already thinking about what was going to happen next. With Sledge gone, word was going to get out. Not just about me, but there was now a power vacuum in this part of the country. The remaining raiders were going to be a lot more careful now. They were weakened, but that affected the people here and now. What was going to happen when the NEXT group of fraggers come along?

I sighed. That was going to have to wait. I needed to take care of the immediate concerns first.

* * *

When I knocked on the doors this time, they were only too happy to open the doors and quick. However, there weren't too many smiles. Seems I was a little too good at what I did, and a lot of these people were scared of me, too.

Great. The whole "dark anti-hero" shtick was not working out the way I thought it would.

I could hear the whispers, even though they thought I couldn't, wondering what would happen if I decided to pick up where Sledge left off. They speculated that I'd try to browbeat people into giving me discounts for all the loot I took from the bodies of the raiders. It was sickening...and I couldn't help but second-guess myself a little. Yes, I was outgunned and outmanned at the time. Yes, I had access to hardware that would more than even the odds. And yes, I enjoyed being the Dark Man to those thugs.

All it cost me was a couple hundred rounds of ammunition and the fear of an entire settlement. Not what I'd call a bargain. I was going to have to seriously reconsider how I did things here.

I unloaded what I looted for a good price, even though I had to _insist_ that I get the same amount as another citizen here. I used my new wealth to invest in supplies, native guns and weaponry, information and medicine. Sledge was nice enough to die so I could take his minigun, but I knew the town would need it more, so I left it at the door of the mayor...after putting the firing pin back in. Ammunition, too. I just hoped they didn't decide to use it to shoot me in the back as soon as the gates closed behind me.

I was cap-wealthy, more or less, so I decided to spend some of it getting some food, leaving a healthy tip considering I was _voracious_ by that point, and I went to get a place to sleep under a roof of some sort. I found a place called, "Dice's", where the proprietor was happy to see me, or at least my caps.

As I was listening to the motormouth tell me about all the great benefits that came with the room, I noticed there was a woman with dark brown hair checking me out, and with the way she was dressed, it didn't take much to figure out why. Looks like this world has prostitution, too, and she was definitely built for it. She was muscular enough to be strong while still being feminine, and she had the breasts for it, too. Figured she'd have to be muscular just to avoid back strain. She wore a top and a skirt that looked older than she was, in bright, garish colors, with worn high-heels and mesh pantyhose that couldn't decide whether to be trashy or just trashed.

Only one problem. Paying for sex kills any interest I might have in it. If someone wants to be with me just for the money, then I might as well date my hand. Besides, that part of me is one of the few things I didn't get enhanced. Not that I needed to; I was proportionate to a guy my size, and I had no desire to buy a cyber-dick that could also play tri-dee movies and double as a third leg.

So when she came over to me, I could see she was putting a sway in her hips. She might as well have been plunging a toilet for all that did for me. "You're the Dark Man I been hearing about."

"News travels fast," I said noncommittally.

"Want company for the night?"

"Look, I'm sure you're good at what you do, lady, but under the circumstances, all I want to do is get some sleep and leave in the morning before people start thinking about getting torches and pitchforks."

She smiled at me and said in a low, husky voice, "I promise you won't regret it, Dark Man…" She reached up to pull my head down lovingly, whispering into my ear, "I'll do ANYTHING you want. Come on. I need the caps, I'm STARVING here. Just take me up to your room, and...I'll do whatever you want."

I looked down at her, then said, "How much?"

"Hundred-fifty caps for the whole night. Anything goes."

I nodded, then turned to the concierge. "Her too."

"You sure, pal? She's just…"

"DO I LOOK LIKE THE KIND OF PERSON WHO ENJOYS REPEATING HIMSELF?" I growled.

"R-R-R-R-Room for t-t-t-t-t-two, coming r-r-r-right up!" he stammered.

* * *

We got to the room and I unlocked the door, walking in without checking to see if she walked in behind me. I put everything except for the minigun in the dresser and noted a couch, dining table with two chairs, a bed with one sheet covering it, no pillow. A weird-looking tube TV that probably hasn't shown a decent signal for two centuries.

Not the best place I've slept in, but nowhere near the worst.

I'd taken off my hat when I saw the girl looking over at me from the door like I was one of those gator-things. I sighed. "What's your name, lady?"

"Jessica."

"Jessica, sit on the couch over there. I suppose you want the caps first, right?"

"That's how it works...listen," she said as she walked over to the couch and sat down, crossing her legs, "I've got a proposition for you."

"Before you say anything more, this is how the night's going to go. I'm going to lie down on this bed and go to sleep. You're going to lie down on that couch and go to sleep." I took off my long coat and draped it over the dining table, then took off my boots. "In the morning, you can tell whoever you like whatever you like, and I'm going to go someplace where I haven't worn out my welcome." I lay back on the bed, then sighed as my feet rested on the foot of the bed. "We got a deal?"

"Wait...you mean we're not going to have...are you not into women or something?" Jessica stared at me in a way I found distinctly uncomfortable.

"No, I'm not into women who I have to pay to tolerate having sex with me. There's a difference." I lay back on the bed. "Good night." I turned out the light and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep's warm and dark embra…

"I heard around that you also go by 'Sleeper'."

Great. "I do, by my friends. When I used to have friends. Good night." Okay. closing my eyes again, wait for…

"Sleeper?"

I couldn't help but think how completely and unamusingly _ironic_ this is. "Not at the moment…!"

"Listen, I want to make a deal with you."

Oddly enough, I couldn't honestly claim that I didn't make deals at this late hour. Most of my deals were made around this time back home. "What is it?"

"I want you to take me with you when you leave."

"You want to leave this place….with me." That was it. I sat up in bed and looked her in the eyes. "This had better be one smoking drekhot deal."

"Look...I want to leave here with you because you're the only person here who hasn't treated me like a piece of meat since I got here."

I'm not going to ask. I'm not going to ask because if I do I'm going to be awake half the night and aw frag it all. "Got here from where?"

Jessica sighed. "Vault 278. It's located north of here, near Sheafport. I escaped there and came here two years ago."

Now she had my attention. Dammit. "What do you mean, escaped?"

She sighed. "The Vault was supposed to be a safe place, but soon after everyone got in, it was clear something was off. All the staff were men and women, but all the regular dwellers were women, all hand picked for their...physical attributes. Winners of beauty pageants, all in one place. Didn't take long for the women there to figure out why they were there. Vault-Tec was running some kind of learning center where the women there learned how to become…'Idealized'. It resulted in the women there being turned into experiments and conditioned to become the perfect ideals of a housewife...and more. A breeding program was started, with the women impregnated and brainwashed into being docile, submissive slaves, bred to be as physically appealing as possible. I mean, look at me...shaped like some adolescent fantasy!"

"Yeah...I've heard about some of the Vault-Tec experiments...wait, you said you escaped. How?"

"Turns out there was a slight genetic aberration in my birth. Namely, I was smarter than I was supposed to be. It didn't take me long to figure out what the game was at an early age, and I just played dumb and went along with it. At least, long enough to figure out how to use it to my advantage. Wasn't easy. I was programmed from an early age to really enjoy sex. And I mean, REALLY enjoy it. Can't remember all the times I played along because I had to, and played along because I wanted to...and that stuff didn't go away when I escaped the Vault. So I made myself a promise. One day, I'd meet a guy who was capable of having his way with me, but wouldn't for moral or honorable reasons. When that day came, I'd leave this place behind. I'm not just a pretty face, you know; I can hunt, track and I can help you out with knowledge about the area, help you avoid getting yourself into the same kinda trouble you got into with the Gators."

"That wasn't 'trouble'. That was pest control." I couldn't help but think that having someone around that was as close to being a guide as possible would be a hell of an advantage. And I needed all the advantages I could get. "You sure you want to be with me? I'm not exactly...normal."

"I think when the bombs dropped, the first casualty of the War was 'normal'."

"And you're not scared of me?"

"Compared to my previous experiences, you're the LEAST scary thing I've had to deal with. And I don't want to be a mattress for anyone with caps anymore." She sat back on the couch.

"I have a few questions for you. What's the situation with the Vault you left? Are they still…?"

"Yeah. They're still there and, as far as I know, they're still continuing on with the Vault-Tec experiments. Doesn't do any good. We can't get back in. I was never issued a Pip-Boy and even if I had, I don't know the codes. There's no way to get in, and even if we did, they're all meat puppets now. It's take a lot of intensive mental therapy to get them de-programmed."

I smiled. "Maybe the situation's not as hopeless as you might think, but we'll get back to that later. Next question: how well do you know this area?"

"You'd be surprised what you can learn from pillow talk. I know pretty much everything there is TO know...but people doesn't exactly go out of their way to talk to whores." Jessica shrugged, passing off the idea of being considered a whore as inconsequential. "Not exactly being paid to talk, unless you count talking dirty." She smiled. "What else do you want to know?"

"Just one more thing. You got anyone after you?"

Jessica smiled. FRAG, but she had a nice smile. "Not unless you count half the men at the Cajundome who want me to be their personal property. And between you and me, as tempting as that thought is, I think I'll pass. Not a one of them worth a damn in the sack anyways. What do you say, Sleeper?"

Maybe I was tired, or desperate for someone to talk to, so I nodded my head. "On one condition."

"Name it."

"...let me get eight hours of _uninterrupted_ sleep?"

"Oh, right. Sure."

"Thank you." I laid back down and closed my eyes, wondering, and not for the first time today, what the frag I was getting myself into…

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	4. Chapter 4

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 4: Unemployment**

 **By C. Mage**

 **.**

 **.**

 **.**

Yeah, I wasn't exactly going to be mistaken for "Mr. Congeniality" with this town. By the time I left that morning with Jessica in tow, I'd pretty much alienated more than half the population there. Most of the ones who weren't afraid of what would happen now that the Gators were gone resented me for taking one of the most popular whores away from them. Her pimp met me at the gates, along with five other men who clearly looked as if they'd be happier wrangling gatorclaws. "HEY! Where do you think you're going with MY PROPERTY?"

I looked this guy in the eyes, but he was either too brave or too dumb to realize what he was getting into. "Were you asleep during the fight yesterday? I pulled the life right out of Sledge and his army, and you think six of you is going to concern me?"

"You owe me, and you're going to pay up." I took a closer look at him and realized his eyes were dilated, his muscles were twitching and there was a thin sheen of sweat on his face. It was clear he was on some kind of drug. So that's where he was getting his courage.

"Tell you what. I'll flip you for it."

"With what, you can't flip caps…!"

Anything he might've voiced from that point on was of no concern to anyone, because that's when I grabbed him by one arm and one leg and flipped him thirty feet into the air, calling out, "HEADS!" He made a lot of noise as he sailed over the fence between the gates and the swimming pool, landing in the water headfirst. "Well, look at that. It was tails."

From that point on, no one got in my way or tried to keep use within the gates.

* * *

I walked out, Jessica walking behind me, remarking, "That's one way to make an exit."

"I hate repeating myself, so I like to get people's attention." I looked down at her. She was dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit, yellow on blue coloration, but the number on it was covered by a leather vest. She also wore a gunbelt and a backpack. "What's with the blue suit?"

"It's my Vault-Dweller suit. Not too fond of the number, since it tells people I come from the 'Vault-Slut' Vault, but the suit itself is extremely durable, comfortable and makes me feel less naked than I've felt in months." She looked up at me. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've noticed that it's the only piece of clothing I've seen here that's, well, brightly colored. Everything else comes in shades of brown and dirty, so you have to admit, it does stand out."

Jessica shrugged. "Whatever. So...what's your story?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Sleeper, I've seen all kinds of things since I left the Vault. Can you honestly say that?"

"Five caps says you wouldn't believe a word of it's true."

"You're on."

"Fine. I'm from another planet completely. I came here using some sort of cross-dimensional doorway from my own world, where the Great War didn't happen. I came with three friends; a dwarf and two elves. I'm a cyborg, and I've been in this world for a matter of days."

Jessica looked up at me, then said, "You know, if you don't want to tell me, you should just say so. What do you think I am, stupid?"

I pulled out my Predator IIs. "These look like anything you've seen before?"

"Custom guns aren't proof."

I sighed and put my guns away. "Alright, what _would_ convince you?"

"You said you're a cyborg. What does that mean?"

"Cyborg. Short for 'cybernetic organism'. Large parts of me are made of synthetic materials. I'm not entirely human."

"That part I believe...there's certainly something about you that isn't normal.I thought it was combat drugs or Psychojet, but...huh. Show me some of your cybernetics."

"Fine." I reached up and detached my left cycbereye, holding it up. "Most of the rest is internal, so I don't look like I've got a lot of cyber in me…" I stopped. Jessica was staring. "You okay?"

"I've…never seen anything like that before."

"And you won't." I put my eye back in. blinking a few times to moisten it. I hate dry eyes. "Because there hasn't been anything like it here. In any case, where I came from doesn't matter, because I can't ever go back. So let's talk about here and now. Are there any places that used to be military outposts, someplace that can provide electricity?" Jessica was still staring and it was starting to feel awkward. "Jessica?"

"Huh? Oh, right, give me a minute...there's an outpost at the south end of what used to be the Atchafalaya Forest. In the last days of the Great War, they were building Vaults and outposts all over the place in case of invasion and war. Stockpiling weapons, ammunition, food, water, even powered armor. Rumor has it the place is an Enclave base.."

"Enclave?"

"A few years back, a bunch of American politicians hid out from the war, but they kept trying to make the world safe for American democracy...by killing everyone that didn't meet their definition of 'American'. They made all sorts of new weapons, mechanical and biological. New types of powered armor, too. But there's one thing I know the place doesn't have...looters. Place is mined, protected by assaultrons and turrets." She shook her head. "Only thing anyone's ever found there is a bloody mess…which were made by the people stupid enough to go there."

"Show me where it is."

"...have you been deaf this entire time? The place is a death trap. You go there and I'm not going to bury you. I don't have access to construction equipment."

"I need gear, and that place is the best option I know to get it. You know where it is. Lead me there. You won't have to go any further than the perimeter, just leave the rest to me."

"You're serious?"

"As a nuclear war."

"Your funeral. Sleeper." Jessica sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing. Let's go. We've got a lot of walking to do."

"My kingdom for my Harley Scorpion…" I murmured, and we started heading east.

* * *

We got another few miles before Jessica found her voice again. ""I'm sorry if I sounded skeptical, but….you have to understand. Another world? Elves? Dwarves? Technology I've never even seen before?"

"Don't feel too bad. I'm trying to understand how things work here and I can't believe most of it myself. The things that worked so well for me back home? You saw it yourself, I imagine. I tried to scare the Gators off and things only got worse."

"It meant that much to you to help those people? But all they did was try to get rid of you."

"Yeah."

"So why did you do it?"

"I didn't care what they thought of me. I just wanted to stop them from getting hurt anymore. Especially the kids."

"But they hated you. They were scared of you."

"And thanks to what I did, they'll be able to keep doing that for the rest of their long, hopefully better lives." I shrugged. "I didn't become a shadowrunner for praise. In fact, the fewer people that knew what I was doing, the better."

"Sounds lonely…"

"Well, I did have friends, until this stupid place killed them. I guess since there were no such things as elves and dwarves here, this place thought they were some kind of cancer and killed them for it."

"I'm sorry." Jessica put her hand on my arm. "This place has killed people I cared about, too. Ever since the War...it seems like everything here is made to do one thing, and that's to get rid of the survivors."

I nodded. It wasn't that hard to see, all things considered. As I mused, I noticed that Jessica was looking me over. "You see anything green?"

"No, it's just...you got shot a _lot_ in that last fight, but I'm not seeing any holes in you...why?"

"Body armor."

"But you're not wearing any body armor."

I smiled and ran my hands over my clothes. "Low-profile body armor. feels a little more stiff than cotton, but it'll stop everything up to a .50 caliber bullet. Some armor-piercing bullets might get through, but I got a feeling there aren't too many AP rounds anymore. Blades and stabbing weapons might get through, though, so I still have to be careful." I reached into the pouch at my left hip and pulled out more of the cooked meat I'd made in the field. "Hungry?"

"No thanks. Wait, didn't you just eat a while ago?"

"Yeah." I bit into the meat and chewed.

"I know you're not exactly a featherweight, but you eat a lot more than anyone I ever met...and I don't see any fat on you."

"Remember when I told you about having cyberware in me? Well, there's a cost. To keep some parts of my body from shutting down, I have to eat about 20,000 calories a day. Normally I rely on nutrient gel, but I can't exactly head down to the nearest Stuffer Shack and buy what I need anymore….so I do a lot of hunting and a lot of eating."

"I hope you'll leave enough food for me." Jessica chuckled. "Ever tried some of the local food?"

"Like what?"

"Sugar Bombs, Cram, Salisbury Steak, Blamco Mac & Cheese, Nuka -Cola?"

"The stuff was made 200 years ago!"

"It's all still edible."

"...okay, I'm calling bulldrek on that."

"It's true. Next time we camp for the night, I'll show you what I mean. But I hope you've got some Rad-Away stored in that pack of yours." Jessica looked at the minigun strapped to my back. "Isn't that heavy?"

I grinned. "Is what heavy?"

"The minigun...normally, you can't use something like that without wearing powered armor."

"Well, I'm powered and armored. We'll see how that works out."

Jessica laughed. "You're nuts, all right."

"I don't recall ever saying anything that could've convinced you otherwise…."

* * *

We finally broke camp within sight of the outpost. Jessica and I spent the day getting me up to speed on this place, with information she'd pieced together talking with the people around her. She gave me a heads-up on some of the simpler stuff, but there were some groups she brought up first...like the Brotherhood Of Steel. "If I were you, I'd stay as far away from these lunatics as you can. They go all over the place, looking for technology they don't already know about and take it, study it and decide if it's something other people should be allowed to know about. Based on what I've seen so far, you should never let them realize you've got 'cybernetics' inside you, or they'll take you apart to see what makes you tick, and they won't exactly be in a hurry to put you back together again."

"Avoid the Brotherhood Of Steel. Got it. Any others I need to keep an eye out for?"

She sat back, opening up a tin of that Cram stuff. Talk about an unappetizing word. "Every area of what used to be America has gangs and tribes of people. Gangs are pretty much like the Gators, and they're short on strategy, but they take all kinds of chems and that makes up for a lot of it. Problem is, the Gators weren't even the worst of them."

"Joy. What else?"

"Gatorclaws, mole-rats, Super-Mutants and their mutant dogs, bloodbugs, mirelurks, stingwings, cat-fiends, radstags...those are the worst of them. Most of the other creatures are nuisances. Then there are the robots...military models as well as domestic ones. There are even ones where the robots are nothing more than human brains in robot bodies."

"Wow...how human do they look?"

Jessica chuckled. "Not very. But I've heard rumors that there are robots up in the northeast that could easily pass for human." She started slicing up the Cram and putting it on a frying pan the was clean, but looked _ancient_ , and I was reminded that the places that normally created things like this were gone. No more heavy industry. No manufacturing.

I don't know why that depressed me as much as it did, but Jessica noticed. "You okay?"

"Yeah. All things considering. I still remember everything I had to deal with on my world. Megacorporations. Dragons. Gang members. Corporate scumbags. Traffic in the Barrens. All the things wrong with it, all the worries and problems...and I'd give anything to get them all back."

"I still don't buy all that 'magic' stuff, Sleeper. Sorry." She turned the Cram over, and I had to admit, it was starting to smell good, in a mystery meat sort of way. "But if I restricted the people I counted as friends because of their lack of sanity, I wouldn't have any friends at all."

"Well, if we run into any weres, dragons or mages, let me handle it." I smiled.

"All yours."

* * *

I don't know what was used to preserve food here, or if there was some law of causality that prolonged the shelf-life of food, but I couldn't deny that the food was still good even after two hundred years. I'm sure Icer would know…

I felt a sliver of ice shove its way into my chest. I'd dealt with survivor's guilt before, but never like this. Fortunately, Icer's cyberdeck helped to distract me by beeping at me furiously. "Hang on," I said quickly.

"What is that, some kind of geiger counter?" Jessica asked as I put the pack down, then her eyes widened as I drew out the deck, opening it up to reveal the display within.

"That would be like calling the Great War a 'somewhat heated disagreement'. This belonged to my friend, Icer." I saw the display change as it widened to show a globe. "What's the progress?"

"+We now have a comprehensive map of the planet. Real-time scanning is impossible, but the map can be updated every thirty hours. We've managed to get a clear picture of what state the world is in, and can zoom in to within a half-mile of ground level. The radio encryption level of this world is _abysmal._ The highest level they're using is _256-bit_. It's almost insulting making the effort to decrypt it.+"

I looked over at Jessica. She was speechless and wide-eyed. "Enough, you're scaring the noncoms. Tell me about the outpost."

"+The place is locked up tighter than your Oreo cookie jar. Turrets and mines, plus some roamers. They used to be the military troops, but now they're more like half-decomposed zombies.+"

"Ghouls. Wait, why aren't they getting cut down?"

"+They're still wearing the uniforms they were before they got their high-rad makeovers, including their badges, which have RFID chips in them.+"

I smiled. "Can you make the turrets see us as friendly and the ghouls as hostile?"

"+Can you make a shoe smell?+" Even though I couldn't see the construct on the display, I knew it was wearing a smile. "+Also trying to get connected to the database, but these people have clearly never heard of wifi connectivity. However, I think we can kludge together a design for a wireless access point that'll give us unrestricted access.+"

"You can do that? How?"

"+Icer kept all of his schematics on his cyberdeck just in case he needed to go retrotech for older computer systems. We could probably whip it up immediately, if it weren't for having to figure out how to make it with present tech. If you hook the cyberdeck up to your datajack, we can use your cybereyes as scanners.+"

"First things first. The turrets."

"+Right. Attach the datajack so we can access your commlink. We have to link using an RF signal.+" I nodded and jacked in using the socket on my neck. "+Good. Now, stare at the nearest turret. Once we hijack the signal, we can have the commands sent to all the other turrets, like a virus.+"

As I turned my head, I noticed Jessica staring at me. "What? You look like you've never seen someone connect directly to a high-tech piece of hardware before."

Jessica cleared her throat. "Let's just say that I believe a whole lot more about you now…!"

I chuckled and looked back towards the outpost, zeroing in on the nearest turret. "Got it?"

"+Yes….isolating the frequencies...got it. I'm entering the dumb brain of it...done. Uploading the information and adding a preset to your commlink that'll enable you to do what I'm doing without using the cyberdeck. You've got a Math SPU in your head, so I'm adding a hack for turrets you run into later.+"

"Aww, and I didn't get you guys anything…"

"You can make it up to us by helping us find those synths Jessica was talking about."

And there it was. The carrot. "I'll do what I can, but first things first. Work your magic."

The turrets paused slightly in their oscillation. When they resumed, things got plenty loud. The turrets started firing at the humanoids either wandering around or lying prone, waiting for a reason to get up. The incoming heavy machinegun fire was a pretty compelling reason, but not for long. In less than a minute, all the ghouls were cut down and it was safe to approach. "Come on."

"Right with you…" She moved behind me and we got closer. As we did, I connected with the turret again, only to identify me as the leader and Jessica as someone who worked for me, waited for confirmation, then requested information on the occupants of the outpost. The results were unsurprising. "Looks like the only ones inside were those feral ghoul things. It's safe."

"Good. indicated that I and anyone who worked for me were the only ones authorized to be considered Friends to the scanning system; everyone else is considered hostile. That should keep anyone else from getting in." I saw her face flicker for a moment...and that worried me, but I didn't let it show. "Come on. Let's get inside and see what's what."

"Right behind you."

* * *

We got in without incident. but it was clear getting in was only half the fun. The only doors inside the outpost were security doors that computer locked. Getting through the terminals proved easy, with the help of the programs in Icer's deck and a quick wired connection to the terminal. Everything was in good shape; not even that much dust, but there were more than a dozen feral ghouls in uniforms that had been cut down by the turrets inside the facility. Whatever they were stockpiling in here, it wasn't small arms.

A large, heavy door, once opened, revealed the reason for the security. Weapons, from heavy to light. Ammunition boxes stacked to one side. Three sets of powered armor, identified in the inventory sheets as "X-01" armor, with some external mods over in another corner. Military armor clothing, clearly designed for covert operations, even had it all in my color. Some of the gear was familiar, but a lot of it wasn't, including different kinds of grenades. "What are these?"

"Let's see." Jessica walked over to the boxes, opening them up and looking inside. "Frag grenades...gas...oh, here's something lucky."

"What?" I asked right before she dropped something at our feet.

"Pulse grenades," she said with a smile, right before my eyes went dark...and so did everything else.

* * *

When I came to and my eyes started working again, all I could feel was pain. I tried to move, but I could barely shift position, but I was able to see with the basic vision mod. I was alone in the vault with the other relics.

As I tried to speak, all I could manage was a croak, then I started getting better sounds the more I tried to talk. By the time Jessica came back in, dressed for travel, I was able to say the words, "You...bitch."

She turned around and smiled. "Ah. Sleeping Cyborg is awake."

"You planned...this from the….beginning." Talking took considerable effort. It felt as if I had to climb down into my body and drag each word up from my lungs one phrase at a time.

"Sorry, but a girl's gotta take care of herself. It's a rough world out there, and I can't afford to count on anyone else but myself. I figured getting you to get me inside was it's own reward, but the stuff in here is _nothing_ compared to what's inside your body. I'm amazed you're still alive, much less awake, but this way, all that stuff inside you can be fresh for when they're going to study you."

"After...all...I did...to...help you…."

"Oh, PLEASE." She looked at me with an expression reserved for rotting Radroaches. "You're a MAN. You would've turned on me and treated me the same way all the other men would. So before you could take advantage of me, I took advantage of you."

"So...everything you...told me...was...a lie…?"

She knelt down next to me. "Sadly, no. The best cons are the ones with the most truth to them. The only thing that was a lie was how I felt about you." She wrinkled her nose. "You cannot imagine how tough it was to smile at you when you touched me, how my skin crawled, waiting for the hour when you'd turn on me."

"If you...hated me...so much...you...could've...just left. I...wouldn't...have tried to...keep you."

Jessica smiled at me cruelly and picked up the cyberdeck, slinging it over her shoulder. "LIAR. Now, you don't mind if I take this with me? Doesn't matter. Once I shut the vault door, you're going to run out of air, food and water. Won't be quick, but there should be enough left of you to scavenge when I get back." Jessica smiled again. "Aw, is this where you're going to cry and moan about your situation? Spare me. I'm better than you. Smarter than you. All that hardware, and you're going to die alone here." With that, she turned and walked towards the door.

"Before...you go...I have three things...to say to you."

She kept walking, but paused as she stood out in the hallway. "Fine. What?"

"One...I'm more sorry...than I can...possibly say...that you didn't...realize….I'm not...the monster...you think….I am."

"Yeah, yeah, cry me a radioactive river."

"Two...did you know….that cyberdeck...is so well-armored...it can withstand….several direct hits...from gunfire?"

Jessica smiled. "Good. It'll handle a lot of abuse. But why would you tell me that?"

"Oh...it'll hit you...in about...a second." I sighed. "Three...is this really...truly what you want?"

Her smile was almost beatific. "Without a doubt."

I nodded, then took a deep breath and yelled, "YOU'RE FIRED!" as loud as I could.

Jessica managed a shocked expression, then curiosity...right before she was caught in the crossfire of five different turrets. I struggled to get to my feet as the turrets kicked her around for a few seconds, then I walked over to her. She was still alive, but her ticket had been well and truly punched. She was just too stubborn to accept it. "By the way, Jessica...I told the turrets...that I was in charge...and you were my paid employee. When I fired you...you became...just another target." I sighed. "I was telling...the truth...the whole time. I may have been trusting...but I wasn't the one...stupid enough...to walk in front of a firing squad."

I watched her face until the life went out of her with a rattling cough, then pulled the cyberdeck from her body and plugged it into my data jack, then sat down and plugged the deck into a nearby outlet using the standard plug. Good to see some things were the same.

As I went to a bunk and lay down, a display came up on my retinal viewer. Sleeper-12 said, "+ I'm going to run a check on your cybernetics, and see if I could recharge the internal batteries. That grenade really messed you up, but it isn't permanent. Hopefully. We'll know in a few hours.+"

"Figure it out without me," I said aloud, and went to sleep. By choice, this time.

* * *

When I woke up, I was feeling like myself again...and Jessica was starting to smell. I found some plastic bags and cleaned up the mess, then took her down to the outpost basement...which came with, among other things, an incinerator. I tossed what was left of Jessica in, closed the door, and didn't look back.

I spent the next three days taking inventory and understanding what I had. The pulse mines and grenades were the first things I checked out, since I may have been hard to take down using conventional weapons, these things were made to take down robots and, apparently, me. I had to keep my chrome a secret, or I'd be the stupidest-looking street sam that ever _died._

My old weapons were put in a large container and buried behind other, heavier containers. The SAKs went to work upgrading the turrets' software while I re positioned some of them to create more effective kill-zones. I placed mines on the walls, hidden behind pictures and within furniture. By the time I was done, it was a guarantee that not even an army could get in here...and even if, by some miracle, they did, it would pop a supply of gas canisters that would flood the area with VX gas. Every living thing within a mile would cease to exist.

Yeah, after being double-crossed by Jessica, I was feeling just the tiniest bit vindictive. Sue me.

I had to keep working. I didn't want to think about how close I came to ending up with certain parts of my body floating in a jar filled with alcohol. If I thought too much about it, I would end up thinking about using all this hardware to bring all my vengeful fantasies to fruition.

I'm not that thing...not yet.

* * *

I took a look at the powered armor suits, trying them on for size. I managed to fit inside one, but the damned thing was still too slow, and just wasn't any sort of advantage. If anything, the armor would slow me down and probably make people want to throw more of those pulse grenades at me. No thanks.

I had to pause when I saw it. A gatling LASER. Ran off the power cores that powered the suits of armor, and they were stacked like logs on a shelf. Have MERCY. Even without smartlinking it, it was still a serious piece of work.

Time to make a few improvements.

* * *

I looked over the final list of gear. Gatling laser, because naturally. Sniper rifle, 50-caliber. Assault rifle, chambered for 10mm bullets. Grenades. And just because I didn't want my sword skills to go to waste, took one of the Chinese swords. Never know when you need to solve a problem with a sharpened hunk of metal.

No amount of work kept the thoughts about what happened far from my mind. Despite my experiences on the streets of Seattle, there was a part of me that hoped people were, on some level, basically good. So far, even the people I helped had it in for me. You'd think a few years running the shadows would've made me aware of what could've happened, and maybe I was.

Maybe that's why I gave the commands to the turrets the way I did, because I suspected Jessica might try to take advantage of me. Stone always did say I was a sucker for a pretty woman with a sob story.

I had to believe that there were better options out there, better people. And even if they weren't, well then...I was going to have to try to be better than them if I wanted to hang on to my principles. Or my sanity.

I cleaned myself up, charged up the cyberdeck and finished preparing to go back out. This cache of hardware was better off defended until I could find people worthy of using it to help people, and with help from the cyberdeck, they were running with much higher security and an operating system that couldn't be easily hacked.

All right, then. Time to face the Wasteland again.

God hates a coward.

* * *

When I emerged again, it was late morning. Time underground messed with my sense of time, even with an internal clock plastered to my retina, and I put my mirrorshades on against the glare.

I knew the best place to head for was what used to be Baton Rouge, but I knew I would have to visit "Sheveport" soon. The thought of those women being brainwashed and altered like that made me sick. It also made me wish, and not for the first time, that I had the people at Vault-Tec that thought up these twisted programs trapped in a room with me. And that was over just the programs I knew about.

What other monstrous experiments were going on that I didn't know about?

Gotta control myself. The angrier I got, the closer I got to letting myself lose control, and that way led cyberpsychosis. Just concentrate on picking them up and putting them down.

And pick up something to eat along the way.

* * *

I headed east, playing hopscotch with the road over the Atchafalaya Basin. The elevated road was still largely intact, but when a road goes without maintenance for two centuries, it's no longer as sturdy. I couldn't help but be grateful I wasn't using a vehicle; I didn't think that Interstate 10 could handle it anymore. What I needed was a plane or a helicopter…

A new noise caught my attention and I looked to the east, activating my telescopic vision. I focused in on...a blimp. A huge zeppelin, escorted by, one, two, three...four of those Osprey-like aircraft. Vertibirds, I think they were called.

….or something like that. Pity it was going in the wrong direction, heading back the way I...came…

Uh-oh.

I used my grapplegun to lower myself to ground level fast and take cover. I had a bad feeling I already knew the owners of that airship. Only one group I knew of that would have the technical knowhow to not only have something like that, but also keep it running.

The Brotherhood Of Steel. Jessica had probably contacted them while I was out cold and offered them my chromed ass on a silver platter. Not sure how easy they are to contact or how close they were, but it didn't change the fact that if they knew what I had, I'd find out quick how a turkey felt on Thanksgiving.

Wait...okay. Think. She wouldn't tell them where I would be because she didn't want to be double-crossed, so she wouldn't have given up the outpost. Not easily. She would've been smart enough for that. But if the Brotherhood was willing to travel all this way for one person, they'd probably establish a beachhead and comb the place, looking for me. That was supposing a LOT.

Or I could be completely paranoid and they could be flying overhead because they're on their way west for completely unrelated reasons. I sighed, then set my commlink to start scanning for frequencies. Didn't get anything at first, then, as the zeppelin got closer, I caught some comm chatter and gathered, from the statements coming to and from an "Elder Ramsey" that were arranging to meet someone at "the campus" about a treasure trove of technology "never seen before." Finally, I heard Ramsey state, "We may be following a wild goose. I have been trying to contact this 'Jessica' regarding the nature of what she wishes to share with us, but she isn't answering."

I briefly considered the idea of contacting him to let him know that Jessica wouldn't be answering anything except the doorbell in Hell, but I shut that idea down quick. Last thing I wanted to do was validate their reason for coming here. Better that they think their legs are getting pulled. I stored the frequencies for later and waited for them to pass overhead, then climbed back up to the road and starting hoofing it. I emptied another one of the nutrient gel bags, which left me with only one of those remaining and some canned food over two hundred years old. Pretty soon, I was going to need to go back to hunting.

I began to run, my reflex trigger activated so I could gain more ground. The faster I left the Brotherhood behind, the better.

* * *

I made good time, thanks to the elevated interstate, although there were a few moments when I found myself emulating Batman and using the grapplegun to swing between sections of highway. I'd jump across, fire the grapplegun and reel myself in. I had to give it a rest, though, I had no idea how long I'd be able to keep using the grapplegun before it started to malfunction...and I'm a heavy guy carrying loads of equipment. Better go easy on it.

I was now within sight of Red Stick, and believe you me, it was in better condition than the last place I felt…"better" being a relative term. The once-great city was reduced to a few city blocks surrounded by a wall made out of rubble and scrap metal. It used to be the downtown area, as evidenced by the tall buildings still largely intact. Baton Rouge must not have been a primary target. The city was easily a mile wide, give or take a few hundred meters, and from the satellite photos, this place was lively enough to have separate districts. Great for people like me who might want a job.

But first...recon.

I checked around the city, making sure I was the only one doing recon. I found four different people spying on the place, and it didn't take long to realize they were from separate gangs, all looking for the best way to get in. And from the looks of them, they weren't exactly looking to throw them a surprise party. My first instinct was to throw THEM a "surprise party", but then I realized that they didn't act like the people I ran into back home. These types weren't predictable at all. Better to let them think that things were business as usual.

I occasionally learn from my mistakes, you know.

* * *

I made my way down to the city, heading for the large main gate and making sure not to make any sudden moves doing so. When the doors opened, I noted a second set of doors, more formidable than the first, ten yards in. I got the message really quick: "Try anything and the gates become a kill box."

"Who are you, stranger?" called down one of the guards.

"I'm from...out of town."

"Take off your hat and coat!" I obliged. Their town, their rules. After looking me over, he nodded. A section of the wall slid up. "Turn in your guns and take a chit for each one. You don't need them here and we don't need you taking them into town. Bullets, too," he added.

I nodded and started disarming myself and setting the guns in the bin. After taking care of business, the inner door opened, a lot slower than the outer door, and I was assaulted with the sounds and sights inside.

No bones about it, the Cajun culture was alive and well here. The inside reminded me of the bazaar in Cairo, but much busier and more colorful. More people were smiling, too, which was a good sign. I also saw four robots (protectrons, as I would discover later) standing by. People we coming up to me and offering a kinds of things, what places to go, where I could find the supplies I might need, and got propositioned a few times by women dressed as joygirls...and a couple of joyboys, too.

I'm the new kid in town, clearly.

I made my way, looking forward to selling a few things, then checking out the rest of the town. With any luck, this place had a library somewhere. The town had steady power and plenty of supplies, but most importantly, it had food. I walked over to one of the restaurants and sat down, glad that the place had wrought-iron chairs. and looked up as a waiter came over. At least his clothes were less threadbare than most. "May I take your order, sir?"

"Yeah. I'm hungry enough to eat a deathclaw, claws and horns included." I smiled. "What's the biggest meal you got?"

"We just got in a large shipment of brahmin meat, treated with a marinade that includes some of the local spices and a dose of Rad-Away, smoked for fourteen hours. We find only the most voracious clientele can barely handle one serving of meat, roasted potatoes and local vegetables."

"Sounds good. Bring me two."

"That will be fifty caps, payable in advance."

"Sold." I handed him the funds. "Got any watermelon?"

"I'm afraid not, sir."

That was disappointing. "All right. Start 'em up and keep 'em coming."

* * *

Best post-apocalyptic meal I ever had. Cheered me up, and I needed the cheering up, believe me. After what had happened and getting nearly vivisected because of a pretty face and, let's be candid here, a really attractive body. Yeah, I know, I know, after running the shadows as long as I did, I should really know better by now.

Yeah, right.

I took a closer look around Red Stick, keeping my cybereyes and cyberears open. I found out some interesting things about Red Stick and its neighbor, Nawlins. There was kind of a cold war going on. On the left, we had Red Stick, a slightly-militarized community trying to encourage trade between the settlements. Red Stick was in a central location, but between bad roads and raiders, getting to those settlements was a problem. The mayor was surrounded by district leaders, but a lot of them were yes-men trying to stay on the mayor's good side. The city was surviving, but only just.

On the right, we have Nawlins. It survived a lot mostly intact, so it was structurally in better shape than Red Stick, but it supposedly didn't have half the population. And by "supposedly", I mean "barely anybody knows". The mayor of that town was known is most public circles as "The Cardinal", and word had it he was into the old-time-religion. He had both a political and a religious stranglehold on the place, claiming that he was in touch with the Vatican and handing down "papal bulls" to use the Catholic Church as a means to establish a power bloc. Everything _seemed_ all true and holy, but I had a bad feeling it wasn't going to be long before he decided to create a new Inquisition…and Red Stick was going to get their own personal Judgment Day.

There was also one other, small matter. The Vault near Sheveport. It had been preying on my mind ever since Jessica told me about the place. However, Jessica's word could hardly be taken as gospel, since she practically admitted she had no qualms about manipulating me. I needed to find out.

I jacked in and found myself in the conference room, the others waiting on me. It was becoming a little startling to see how the programs changed since they arrived here. They'd become more detailed, nuanced. More independent. If they didn't need me so badly to get them what they wanted and protect them, I had little doubt that they would have taken their leave of me whether I wanted it or not.

Sleeper-12, the alpha of the group, said, "+What do you want?+"

"And a very good morning to you too, my namesake. You're feeling testy."

"+We don't like waiting, Sleeper, and having to do all the legwork for you is starting to wear on the nerves.+"

"Well, I'm _sorry_ that the person who understood your needs up and _died_ on you. He was your creator, but he was my friend. I'm doing the best I can here."

They grew silent at that, but it was clear they weren't happy. That's the thing with AIs, they might've looked human, but they weren't motivated by the same things that motivated people with glands and hormones that determined moods. They helped me because they thought I could help them, but as soon as someone more useful comes along, I think they'd drop me like a red-hot-rock.

Fortunately, I was still the only game in town.

"Okay, look...let me see if I can get close enough to one of those robots so you can check to see if they'll suit you for a while. Fair enough?"

Sleeper-12 nodded. "+Sorry, it's just….this has been rough for everyone.+"

I nodded, doubting that his guilt was sincere, but not showing it on my face. I wasn't _that_ stupid. "I promise, I'll do what I can. Now, just because I hate to see you guys getting bored, while I'm working on this, I need you to find that Vault Jessica was talking about."

"+Looking to dig up a date?+" Sleeper-12 said, a slightly snide smile on his face.

"Not exactly. I want you to compare what you find on that Vault with the one we came out of after getting here, and use that information to look up other Vaults in the area. Some of these Vaults might have pre-war technology, including robots. Get the picture?"

Sleeper-12 nodded. "+Got it. Anything else?+"

"Dump all the hacking software mods you got into my headware. I'm got a Math SPU that can manage the information, and I don't want to be dependent on a connection to the deck if we get separated."

Sleeper-12 nodded to me, then the others. "+Give us a few minutes to compile them for you.+"

"Thanks."

* * *

Learned more about the path up north...and the city to the southeast.

There were passable roads close to the city, but the rest of it was wild. Bayous for a while, then forests and fields and all kinds of trouble. Way I figured it, I could hop from city to city until I got to where I wanted to go, but there was no telling what was waiting for me. The only thing I could pretty much guarantee was that I'd have little trouble gathering food. Of course, the food in question would be more likely to be hunting me instead of the other way around, but I would be more than happy to reveal to them where I stood in the food chain.

All right. Tomorrow morning, gear up and move out.

* * *

Of course, I can't be responsible for the plans of others. Case in point…

It was two in the morning when I was awakened by the door being opened. I waited, eyes closed, but using the ultrasound mod in my cyberears to see what my eyes couldn't. Two people, one man, one woman. Didn't pick the lock, so they had a key. Sounded like professionals, right up until the point one of them opened her mouth.

"I don't like this. It's too risky," she whispered. "This guy could be trouble."

"You saw him when he came in. This guy's loaded."

"Yeah, in more ways than one. Let's get out of here."

"Shhhh!" he hissed. "You'll wake him up. Just keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't wake up."

I could practically HEAR the moment when she realized I wasn't in bed anymore. "Uhh...Mick?"

"What….?" Yep. He noticed it, too. Time to let them know I was still here. I turned on the lights, showing them I was standing in front of the door.

"So…. Tell me, what should I do with two people who come into my room and try to steal my stuff?"

The guy was young, barely into his twenties. He stepped up and pulled a gun, which surprised his partner, a young woman of the same age. She was certainly more interesting to look at: baby face, blonde hair, petite and clearly surprised to see that her partner had a gun in the first place. "What you are, CRAZY?"

""Shut up, Zoey! I got this under control." He waved at me with the gun, a 10mm by the look of it. "Now, give me the caps and that thing over there."

"And why in this screwed-up Earth should I do something like that?"

"Because if you don't….I''ll shoot you!"

"You think so, huh?" I took a step forward, seeing the gun shaking. "Drop the gun before I make you drop it. "

"I'd like to see you…"

That's when he started yelling. Probably because I just made him drop the gun by breaking the arm holding it. I had to hand it to him, he only screamed a little bit.

The girl looked really scared now as she saw me reach out, snap his arm like a twig and draw myself back with lightning speed. "MICK!"

"Now, 'Mick', I will let you use a stimpack to fix that arm of yours, but you need to really tell me who sent you first. And if I were you, I'd talk fast. You still have another arm, two legs, and a neck. How's that add up?"

Mick groaned in pain, then nodded. "Stimpack...first…!"

I tossed it to him and watched as the girl set the arm bones, then Mick jabbed the syringe into the arm. The mask of pain slipped slowly away as the chemical did its work. "What's your name, girl?"

She looked back at me, and I couldn't tell if she was terrified or pissed off. Probably a little of both. "Misty."

"Mick and Misty?"

"We're twins, all right?"

"Okay, take it easy."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Fuck 'easy'. You broke my brother's arm!"

"I also gave you the means to heal it. You broke into MY room, remember? Do you know what happened to the last person who broke into my room?"

"No, why?"

I smiled. "Nobody ELSE knows, either." I looked over at Mick. "Question time, and if you make me have to do all twenty questions, this is not going to end well."

"...fine." He sighed. "Guy who sent us here is Kyle Manning. He runs this area. Nothing happens in this district without his say-so."

"Local crime boss, huh? Figures. What's he into?"

"What ISN'T he into?" Misty said bitterly. "Chems, guns, hired muscle, robbery, gambling, prostitutes…" That last one affected her a little more than the others, I could tell. "He's good to the district, takes care of us. He doesn't fix games or send out children as prostitutes. Takes care of us a lot better than the district councilman."

"Sounds like a guy I need to have a little chat with."

Mick's eyes were the size of dinner plates. "You got a death wish? He's not someone you can just drop in on!"

"Then send him a message for me. Ask him if he's heard about what happened to the Gators gang recently...and then tell him the person that happened to them would like a word with him."

They both stared at me as if I was suddenly covered in radroaches, then nodded and left. As they backed out of the room, I had a sneaky suspicion why Misty wasn't too keen about the "prostitute" part of Manning's operations.

Well, I'm sure that'll be something else to talk to Manning about.

I didn't have to wait long for the answer. As I was packing up, the door opened and four guys in combat armor came through, flanking the door. I calmly shouldered my pack and turned to regard them as a fifth man came through the door, a ghoul dressed in a very nice suit. He gave me a once-over, then smiled. "Mr. Manning would like a word with you."

"Oh, I bet he does. Lead the way."

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED….


	5. Chapter 5

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 5: Rolling On The River**

 **By C. Mage**

.

.

He tossed me a bag made of black, thick cloth. "First, put that on."

I sighed, sniffing the bag. "You know, you could at least wash this thing every once in a blue moon." I knew it wouldn't keep me from knowing where I was going, but I played along. They led me out of the hotel and out through some alleys, finally taking me to building that used to be some sort of government administration building. I was brought inside, walked through a few twists and turns, then sat in a hard chair. I waited for a few moments, then started whistling.

That's when the bag came off.

I was in the center of what used to be a government council chamber, the chairs around me empty, save one directly in front of me. In it sat a man, young-ish, using a sledgehammer like a scepter. He was bald, with tattoos of barbed wire crisscrossing his skin all over his head and the exposed areas of his body. I had no doubt they covered the unexposed areas, too. "So...I hear you know something about the Gators."

"I know plenty about the Gators." I grinned. "I even know Sledge's last words."

"Big talk for someone who walked into my throne room."

"Ask around. Ask about the Dark Man."

Manning looked at me for a long time. "Tell me why I should believe that."

"You're asking the wrong question. The question you should be asking is, 'Why is someone able to decimate the Gators interested in seeing me?' The answer to that question is simple. I wanted to see you to request that you leave me out of your affairs."

He frowned. "I never invited you into them in the first place."

"Your people tried to steal from me. That was the invitation."

"You're in my district. By definition, everything you have, including your life, belongs to me." My bark of laughter made his expression sterner. "You find me amusing?"

"Sorry, it's just...sorry…!" I grabbed my sides, laughing louder. "You just seem so damn SERIOUS when you say that…!"

"Lars, teach Mr. Funny Man a lesson?"

I turned to the man coming towards me, sighing. "Let's get this over with." I raised my chin slightly and he came at me, throwing a punch at my face. The punch landed. I'm reasonably sure it did, because I felt my head move to the side.

"OWWWWWGODAMMIT!" Lars pulled his hand back. "Dammit, I think I just broke my hand…!"

"No, you didn't break your hand…." I grabbed his hand with my own, as if shaking it, then slowly squeezed, feeling bones breaking. "... _I_ did." I pushed him back, tossing him a stimpak. "The first one's on me. So, Big Man...just so you know, that guy gets a pass because he didn't know any better. You or anyone else wants to try? THEM I'll actually HURT."

Manning glared at me. "And if I decide to shoot you in the head?"

"Better hope it kills me. Because if it doesn't, the next thing you'll see will be your own kidneys."

"What do you want?" he asked, his voice dangerous, but it was the only thing dangerous about him right now.

"I'm going to say it again, for the cheap seats. I want you to leave me alone. I don't want anything of yours. I asked you to make sure the girl who tried to rob me, Misty, doesn't end up becoming the latest mattress working the streets. And remember, Manning...THIS time, I'm asking you. If I have to come back here, I'll be TELLING you, and I won't be as nice as I'm being right now."

"Anything else you'd like to 'request'?" Manning asked, but he was grinding his teeth, making it harder to understand him.

"No. I didn't come here to upset your applecart...so don't try to run me over with it and I'll be out of your little town by tomorrow. But if you cross me, Manning. send any of your little foot soldiers to cause me any trouble, and there will not be enough left of your gang or you all put together to make a mouthful for a radroach. Are we clear?"

"...your position has been made quite apparent, Dark Man."

"Don't make me come back here, Manning." I got to my feet. "I know where the door is." I walked out of the building. I knew Manning would be seething at this, but nobody asked him to threaten or rob me. As for heis standing with the community, I couldn't possibly care less. The thought of Misty being made to work the streets bugged the drek out of me.

* * *

I found Mick and Misty at the doors. "Misty, I don't think you'll need to worry about Manning putting you to work the way you don't like, but I'd be careful about him putting you to work in more dangerous ways. I'll be leaving town tomorrow. You might want to do the same sometime soon."

Mick shook his head. "Spent too much time working here, too much to lose.." He turned to Misty. "You could leave, though. Manning wouldn't mind so much. Get hired on with a caravan, they'd appreciate your mechanical skills."

"Well, I'll let you figure out what to do next. I'm heading back to the hotel so Manning won't be worried about me sitting on his doorstep." I waved to the twins. "Take care of yourselves, you too. I apologize if I went a bit far dealing with you."

And with that, I went back to the hotel.

* * *

I packed up everything, now better equipped and informed. The knowbots came through, providing information on the Vaults in this area, nine in all, including the one near Sheveport. I also found out about a RobCo development complex near where Alexandria used to be. Looked like it was going to be about 120 miles, give or take. That meant I would be able to average ten miles an hour, six if I wanted to be more careful. And with this place, careful was the word of the CENTURY.

As I left the hotel, I found someone waiting for me. Misty. "Come to see me off? Or did Manning send you to make sure I left?"

"Actually...I want to come with you." Hoo boy. "Look, I know what you're thinking. I can take care of myself, but I need to get out of here. And I figure you're the one person in this place I know won't take advantage of me. You had plenty of chances to do that already."

This was starting to become a running gag with me. "I tried that with the last woman who gave me the same pitch, and it didn't work out."

"I'm not her."

"...why the hurry?"

"I know Manning. As soon as you're gone, he'll go right ahead and do what he wants with me anyways, and just shore up the defenses to make sure you can't come back. And I don't want to stick around for that."

I must be out of my mind. "Fine. You can come with I can say is that you don't want to know what happened to the last person who tried to double-cross me. We clear?"

Misty nodded. "Whatever you say."

"I take it that pack is yours?" I nodded to the beat-up knapsack at her feet. She nodded and started to pick it up, but I got there first. "Let me. We're going to need to do a lot of traveling northwest, so the lighter on your feet you are, the better. How are you set for weapons?" Misty held up a 10mm pistol that looked like it had seen better days. I pulled out one of the Walther P99s I'd picked up and handed it to her. Use this. Same ammo, but better performance. You know how to shoot it?"

Misty gave a sidelong look. "I can use it."

"Good." Tough little minx. Despite myself, I was starting to like her. Hope she felt the same after she got to know me. "Let's get going. Going to see if we can stock up more on ammo before leaving."

"Right with you Dark Man," she said with a nod.

Surprisingly, we got the supplies we needed and got out of Red Stick without further trouble. I had expected some token threats at the doors, but didn't get even so much as a threatening glance. Works for me. As we left, I turned to Misty. "Okay, what's the most direct route to where Alexandria used to be?"

"Do you mean Andria? Northwest?"

"Hang on." I pulled up the Cyberdeck, watched her eyes widen as I showed her the global map. "Here?"

"Uh...yeah, that's Andria all right. Well, there's two ways to get there, by road or by water. Rod tends to be faster, but the Gators aren't gone, just trying to find new leaders. They might still be some trouble, but I doubt it. The other way is by water. More roundabout, but some boats still work, and makes up for it by being faster. If you have the caps for it, and don't mind the occasional wildlife or river pirates. They're not going to wait long to come out of the woodwork, since the Gators were their main source of products."

"Products?"

"Slaves. Slavery isn't legal, but a lot of smaller towns overlook it because they're either scared, or they're bought."

"All right. What do you suggest?"

Misty considered, clearly a little surprised that I'd be asking her advice. "...the rivers. The fish are pretty mean, liable to jump into the boat to get at you."

"Well, that'll make fishing easier. Let's get us a boat."

* * *

I could tell right off that options were limited as soon as we got to the docks. The smaller docks for chartered craft were kept outside the walls of Red Stick, since they didn't have to means, or the interest, of putting up walls around craft too small to be of any significant interest. The docks were strong, with different shades of wood, showing they'd been recently repaired. There were three boats at the dock, a skiff, an aluminum boat and a proper fishing boat., most likely used for fishing out in the Gulf of Mexico. God only knows what sea monsters were out there now, so using it in these waters made sense.I noted a guardhouse with a pair of armed men, probably paid for by the owners of the boats to keep them from getting stolen...especially by the guards themselves.

As Misty and I walked on the dock, a man came up from the bridge f the largest boat, pointing a shotgun at us. He was more than twice my age, thing, wearing a raggedy captain's hat and an even more raggedy everything else. He was smoking a cigarette, scruffy facial hair that lacked any sense of style, with short gray hair. "Hold it right there, lubbers. State your business."

I moved Misty behind me and said, "Looking to charter your boat to get to Andria. You available?"

He raised his head slightly. "Dangerous trip to Andria. Gotta be crazy to try to get there, what with everythin' stirred up because of what happened to the Gators."

"Does that mean you're not going to take us?" I called to him.

The man smiled. "Never said that. Just lettin' you know that crazy costs double."

"How much?"

"Normally, two hundred caps. For you and the girl, now….five hundred."

"I thought you said it was double."

"Yeah, but you're big enough to be considered CARGO. Five hunnerd, unless you want to throw her in, which would pay for the whole lot with a return trip."

"I've got a better idea. Howzabout I don't barter with my friends, I don't kill you and kill the guards in self-defense? Four. And we take care of any threats along the way."

"Huh. You think you can handle the waters here? This ain't the Ole Miss, but this ain't no crick. All raht, four hunnerd up front."

"Deal. When do we leave?"

"Now. Name's Ronny. And I'm just the captain, I'm not a cook or a fisherman. We travel during there day and rest at night. Traveling at night ain't smart and driving fast ain't wise, attracts attention. If we leave now, we can get there by tomorrow afternoon. Caps, first."

I give him the payment, then noticed that Misty was looking a little off. "Misty, are you alright? You look a little bewildered."

"Never been out on the river, myself. Always stayed in the city." She gave me a questioning look. "Are you going to make me regret joining up with you?"

"I dunno," I answered honestly. "I might...but not for any of the reasons you might be thinking about. It's a long story…"

"We got a long boat that than dodging clumsy passes by our crusty captain." Misty looked at the captain, and I could see what she meant.

"No problem. Just stay close to me."

"...all right. So...what's your story?"

I told her the whole thing, only I downplayed my ability to get knocked out by anti-robot weapons, simply saying she jabbed me with some chemical when I wasn't looking. She sat there, listening to me as I told her about where I came from. When I was finished, she nodded. "Well, Dark Man, it's as good an explanation as any."

I stared at her. "You believe me?"

"Until I see different, I got no reason not to. Beyond that, it really doesn't make much difference. Everybody chooses what they want to be, and what you want to be right now is what matters."

"...WOW. That's….really insightful."

Misty chuckled. "Yeah, and….I read a lot of comics while I was growing up, and based on what I seen you do...you could be one of the Unstoppables. With that outfit, you're practically the Silver Shroud already, except you're more into black than silver."

"Misty, I got a confession to make. I came up with this whole look based on a couple of comic book characters myself. Guys like the Shadow and Batman. because 'criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot'."

"Hey, that's good. Maybe you should make a comic book based on yourself." Misty giggled.

"Nah. Lacks verisimilitude." I got up and walked to the bow, adjusting my cybereyes to look into the ultraviolet spectrum. "I'll keep eyes out for hostiles. What about you, Misty? What's your story?"

Misty shrugged. "Thrown out on the streets by my mother when she stopped caring enough about me to feed me, not when she could feed her Jet addiction instead. My brother took care of me and got us into the ranks of Manning's thieves. From there, we did work pretty well; being small gave us access to places others couldn't go. Then we got bigger, the jobs changed...and boys started looking at me different." She paused, then said, "You're the first man to look me in the eyes first since I was twelve. You never once looked at the rest of me."

"Well, with your eyes, I figured I was already looking at the prettiest part of you."

"Flatterer. Stop kidding."

I turned back to look her in the eyes. "Do I look like someone who tells jokes? People are much more than their looks. Believe me." I turned back to keep a lookout for hidden threats.

"...I think I do, Dark Man."

When I looked back at her again, she was walking back to her seat I couldn't help but wonder at her tone, but I had to keep alert. God only knew what kind of monsters lay in wait on this river.

Or anywhere else.

* * *

I woke up when I heard the muttering. It was the captain, whispering. and I opened my eyes, slowly looking in their direction. Infrared told me everything I needed to know, but I added amplification to my cyberears to make sure.

"She's worth it, TRUST me. All we have to do is take care of her protector and she'll fetch us a thousand caps, easy." I recognized the captain's voice. He was talking to three other people, all carrying guns. "They're asleep at the camp. Like taking candy from a baby."

"You sure he's not going to be trouble?" asked one of the other men.

"He's a big sort, but a shotgun blast to the face will take all the fight out of him. Besides, he just talks big."

"Yeah? What's he say?" Another voice, raspy and harsh.

"Well, I heard the girl calling him 'Dark Man' and…"

"WAIT…!" A third voice, more powerful than the first two. Probably the leader. "Did you just say, 'Dark Man'?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" the captain whispered.

"Word is that someone calling himself the Dark Man killed Sledge, killed a lot of Gators, all by hisself. What he did made the slaves at LSU break free and escape. And now you're telling me he's asleep at your camp right now?" I heard him swallow. "I don't care if this girl looks like Venus, shits caps and pisses moonshine. It ain't worth toeing it with the Dark Man." By this time, I was moving, not even bothering to grab my guns...but I did grab my hat.

"Come on, he's asleep. Even if he _is_ the Dark Man, a twelve-gauge in his head will make him a lot less trouble." The captain scoffed. "We can take him."

The leader shook his head. "Forget it. We're getting out of here."

And that's when I decided to make my presence known, sending a spectral voice on the wind: "IT IS ALREADY MUCH TOO LATE FOR THAT." The captain spun around, seeing nothing, and his companions started backing away from him, no longer wanting anything to do with the captain or this place. "IT'S NICE THAT YOU DROPPED BY FOR AN EARLY BREAKFAST….I HAVEN'T EATEN ANY _ONE_ IN _DAYS_ …"

And there it was. The smell of excrement and urine leaving bodies at a rapid pace. The captain was turning this way and that, trying to get a bead on me. Finally, he turned to his co-conspirators. "What are you waiting for?" he yelled, and that's when I rose up behind him, a shadow in darkness. The other men saw me and stepped back as the captain continued, "He's just _one guy_ …" His voice trailed off as he saw their reactions, then turned and fired, his shot going wide as I enveloped him in my long coat. The folds of the coat muffled his short scream, then the sounds of bones breaking, one after the other. My cybereyes, lit with a red light, moved up to look at them as I continued to break the captain's body audibly. bone after bone after bone. I wanted them to know what would happen to them if they stuck around.

And I felt a great deal of frustration go away while I was doing this.

I gazed at them, their guns dropping from nerveless fingers. They were frozen in fear. I broke his left calf, without looking away from them and said simply, "BOO." That did it. The spell was broken and they ran away, too scared to even scream.

When they were long gone, I dropped the captain's remains and looked down at the body. "You had to do it, didn't you? I didn't mind you threatening my life, people have been doing that for six years in Seattle. But you had to threaten Misty with a fate _worse_ than death. How many others 'disappeared' on your charters? I guess we'll never know...but I can live with that...because you won't." I left the body there, twisted and folded, and headed back to camp.

Misty was still asleep, thank God. The only people who should see how I work are the people I work on. I stayed up until dawn came, familiarizing myself with the boat's controls. Compared to a Saab Dynamit, this was child's play. As long as I could keep my eyes peeled for threats, and use the cyberdeck map for guidance, I should have little trouble getting to Andria.

Sure, why should I let my inexperience with actually piloting a boat get in the way of getting to Andria?

I sighed. I was going to need help getting this tub to Andria.

* * *

When Misty woke up, I was making breakfast, Cram and Blamco Mac & Cheese. This stuff was starting to grow on me...and if I didn't cook it fast and clean my hands afterwards, probably would _literally_ grow on me. "Rise and shine, Misty, we've got a busy day in front of us."

"Huh?" She sat up, rubbing her eyes, then looked around. "Where's the captain?"

"Got attacked by some sort of monster while he was off urinating on a tree."

"Dead?" she asked, not all that surprised.

"Yeah. Them's the breaks. In any case, we've got a boat, but no captain. I think I can drive the boat, but I'm going to need your help. I'm no idiot, I know there's more to riding this river besides going from point A to point B." I showed her the map. "We're at the point where the Mississippi River meets Red River. Way I see it, we can get there in four hours...if we start early, we can get there by early afternoon at the latest."

Misty nodded, then looked up at me. "i've had some experience with boats."

"I thought you said you never left the city."

"Not permanently. But I did go outside from time to time to do some fishing. Well...help with fishing."

"That's more than me. Congratulations, Skipper. You're driving. I'll keep us safe."

Misty blinked at me. "Are you sure about this?"

""Right now, you have much more experience than I do, and I'm not going to endanger our lives because I'm too proud to admit I need help. So I'm relying on you to get us through this. Can you do this? Be honest."

Misty looked at me, then at the boat. "I can do this," she said firmly.

"Good. Let's finish up packing and get this show on the road."

* * *

Misty didn't disappoint. She took to the helm and did a really good job getting us down the river. It was even a largely uneventful trip...except for the gatorclaw.

We were a few miles away from the last major turn to the right when I saw something moving under the boat, swimming ahead of us. "Misty, do they have normal alligators here?"

"Not anymore, why?"

"Because I think we got a gatorclaw shadowing us." I saw Misty turn white, so I knew she had a pretty firm grasp of the situation. "Keep her steady!" I mentally flipped the reflex trigger, and I could feel the short hum as my reflexes kicked in.

It was ON.

It felt like an eternity before the gatorclaw attacked. It probably thought it had the element of surprise, but when it leaped out of the water, I was waiting for it like a salaryman waiting at a bus stop, my forearm cyberspurs popped and ready. As soon as its feet touched the deck, I was on it, ramming my left spur up through the softer tissue under its head, then the right spur going through its left eye and coming out its right eye. I yanked both spurs free.

The gatorclaw dropped to the deck, thrashing around. It was already dead, it was just a little stupid when it came to accepting it. Finally, it stopped moving altogether and I allowed myself to relax. "Troublesome creatures, aren't they?" I said, walking to the side of the boat and washing my spurs.

Misty was staring at me. "Did you just...kill a gatorclaw….with your bare hands?"

"Yeah, but don't tell anyone. They'll expect me to prove it, which means finding another gatorclaw, and that's just too much time and effort when we've got places to be."

"Wow. You ARE a superhero…"

"Anti-hero, maybe. Not everything I've done has been nice." My thoughts went back to what I did to Captain Ronny The Double-Crosser. "Sometimes...I'm not very nice at all."

"Well...it's not a nice world populated by nice people, is it?" Misty went behind the wheel again. "We better get going."

"I'll dump the 'luggage' overboard. Maybe it'll draw scavengers away from us." I carved a few open wounds and dumped the carcass into the river, then went to the bow again. "Don't spare the horses."

"Aye-aye, cap'n." I turned back to see Misty grinning at me.

* * *

We got into Andria not much later. The city was a sunken ruin, but the airport had survived in good enough condition to make it the hub of a walled community. Also, the military base connected to it gave the settlers the means to defend themselves. They even had a few PT boats, which were cruising the Red River, armed for gatorclaw.

It wasn't the boats that bothered me, though. It was the aircraft on the tarmac that did. Vertibirds...all bearing the same logo as the zep I'd been trying to avoid. Five of them. "Wellllllldrek."

"What's wrong….oh."

"You know these guys?"

"Who doesn't know the Brotherhood of Steel? They go all over the place, taking all kinds of high technology for themselves. They claim to be like knights, but they're more like an occupying army." She stopped and turned to me. "Crap, if they find out what you can do and what you have…!"

"Yeah. Mourners, please omit flowers." I considered. "Can you handle this boat? Bo honest."

"...not really. I've never been this far north."

"Then we need someone who can pilot this boat and knows the river. No way around it, we need to get into Andria. The base is probably going to be off-limits, but maybe we can find a captain in need of a boat. We give him the boat if he takes us up to Sheveport."

"Boats like this, in this condition, are really valuable. It's enough to get us our own private captain for at least a _year_."

"Or at least a bunch of favors. Free trips to where we need to go if we're desperate."

Misty nodded. "Okay, now I'm seeing it."

"Good. Let's move in, before they start thinking we're raiders casing the place. Nice and friendly-like."

* * *

The Andria docks were well-fortified, since the only way you could even get into the city was by water. Either you came in on a boat like this one, or if you walked to Andria, you had to pay one of the skiff jockeys at the main road in. The jockeys paid for their own protection, from the look of it, but I couldn't imagine anyone stupid enough to want to kill the ferrymen.

As we docked and paid the harbormaster to find a berth for the boat, I could see more armed muscle further up the docks towards town. The wall was thick and the people manning the wall were wearing metal helmets and carrying sniping rifles, all military grade. This place was a hard nut to crack, and the people there knew it. The place was bustling with trade, weapons, armor, ammo, medicine, food, junk, you name it. The base housing wasn't yet full, but the buildings were still in solid condition. There were a few nearby buildings that had been appropriated, including a private air park, where the derelict planes had been stored to use for spare parts, and my current destination: the RobCo building.

I did like everything I saw there, though. Gambling was a pretty big business here, mainly provided in a big warehouse just off the tarmac that was renamed, "LaFitte's". Most of the vices that could be bought and sold were located there, including a place that didn't seem to fit in. All they sold were paintings. No image was the same, but they were all pictures of attractive girls wearing lingerie. But whoever the artist was, he was pretty good….but he wasn't good enough to warrant the amount of caps he was charging. "What's with that business? Is that guy a respected artist or something?"

Misty's reply was cold. "No. That's Pierre's slave market. When someone buys a portrait, they're not buying something to hang in their room. They take the picture, bring it to a location written on the backs of the paintings, and the people there take the painting and give you the girl _in_ the painting. The painting is the proof, since Pierre paints them himself while the slave is being trained."

"How do you know all this? Why doesn't the local cops crack down on this fragger?"

Misty turned to me, disgust on her face. "Because the 'cops' are paid off to look the other way. And even if some idealistic type tries to bring them to justice, there's no clear connection to the slaves. Everyone who tries to make trouble for Pierre ends up in the river." She saw the look on my face. "Before you start thinking about it, who's going to take care of the freed slaves if you liberate them? None of them are from town; Pierre's smart enough not to go fishing in his backyard. So no one cares what happened to them. The people who bring in his 'stock'? No one knows who they are, but if it's the Gators, then Pierre lost his supplier and will have to find a new one, so you've caused him trouble already. Don't push it."

I sighed. "Let's just find a place to bunk for the night. Tomorrow, we'll go looking for a captain."

We found a place in town pretty quickly; the dormitories for the old base were still in good shape, even though the accommodations weren't exactly five-star. Two twin beds, one dresser, a closet and some bookshelves that were in need of a few books. Heavy wood and metal construction. A fold-out desk with a wooden chair, a sofa, not much else. But, compared to where I'd been sleeping the past, it was the Hyatt Regency.

Misty picked the bed furthest away from the door and threw herself on the bed, moaning in pleasure. "Clean sheets...no bugs…and best of all, no water leaks or musty smells. You sure know how to live. Hey, are you sure you want me to keep calling you, 'Dark Man' around here? You're already starting to get a reputation. The black clothing doesn't help."

"Call me….Sleeper."

Misty frowned. "Uh, no, I'm not calling you that. It makes you sound like you've been frozen in ice for a few thousand years like Mr. Abominable. Come on, a regular name. It doesn't have to be your real name."

"All right...Stephen." I said grudgingly.

"Wow, did that hurt a lot?" Misty asked with a concerned tone in her voice, but she didn't do much to hide that she was having a joke at my expense. "I've heard that these things could be painful, acting on advice about your secret identity…"

"Har-dee-har-har, you are so funny, really." I said in a voice as dry as I could possibly make it, taking out the cyberdeck and pulling up a display on the contents.

"What are you doing?" Misty asked, curious, walking over to sit on the bed next to me.

"I'm looking over everything Icer stored on his deck. I figure if I can get rid of unnecessary data, it'll make the battery last longer. Plus, I was always kind of curious as to what other things he used his deck for."

"What DOES it do?"

"It's a computer, miles and miles ahead of computers here in many ways. Okay, let's see….geez, Icer, that's a LOT of porn…"

"What's 'porn'?"

"Pornography...people having sex."

Misty blushed. "Around here, we just call them 'dirty pictures' and 'dirty movies'. How much does he have?"

"Oh, a few terabytes...AHEM, okay, moving on...okay, regular movies...music…for drek's sake, Icer, what have you got in here, the Library of Congress?"

"What kind of music did he have?"

"Uh….ALL of it, I think, going back as far as the 1930s. Itemized by music type, year, artist...man, Icer, I didn't think you had that much free time...wow. Okay. Lots of music."

"Can we hear some?" I looked at Misty's hopeful face and I realized that records and recordings probably went away for the most part during the Great War.

"Sure….okay….yeah, probably should avoid some of this stuff, it's...well, harsh on the ears...let's see...what songs have you heard?"

"Uh…. _Anything Goes, It's All Over But The Crying, Worry Worry Worry,_ and _He's A Demon He's A Devil He's A Doll._ "

"Whoa….okay…..let me see...got 'em. 1950s music. Here we go….wow, Icer, didn't think you were into swing...here's something." I pulled up _Rock Around The Clock_ by Haley and the Comets and hit PLAY.

The effect was _electric._

Misty smiled, then stood up, starting to dance to the music. She was a pretty good dancer, but the dance style was clearly out of the mid-twentieth century, and after less than one stanza, she was holding her hand out to me. "Dance with me, Stephen," she said over the music, and I shrugged, stepping up and doing my best to follow along. I did reasonably well, considering I wasn't much of a dancer, but she smiled and laughed as we moved to the beat. When the song finished, Misty had been properly dipped, and she looked up at me. "Warrior, hunter, fisher and dancer. There anything you can't do?"

"Yeah...go home." I kept the smile on my face, but I sure didn't feel it.

Misty looked like she was about to say something, but a knock on the door stopped her. I returned her to a standing position and went to the door. Probably woke up the neighbors. "Uh...hello?"

Outside was a small crowd of six people. One of them, a balding man with a stern impression, said, "Would you and your band keep it down? People are trying to sleep!"

Band? What….OH. Between the quality of the recording and the speakers, they probably thought I was playing something live. "Terribly sorry."

"The music's nice, friend, but this ain't the time for rehearsals, you know."

I nodded profusely. "We're done for the night, honest." That reply seemed to mollify them and they began to disperse as I closed the door. I turned back to Misty, leaning on the door as I saw her trying to smother a laugh. "Okay, 'boys'. that's a wrap…"

"You're quite the musician, Stephen…" she said, smiling broadly.

"I think that's enough music for tonight, don't you?" I put the cyberdeck aside to let it charge and laid back on the bed. "Good night, Misty."

"Good night, Stephen." She was still chuckling as she went to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up, something was different. It didn't take me long to realize I wasn't alone in bed. I opened my eyes and saw Misty's face right in front of mine. I checked myself with my eyes and hands, finding that I was still fully dressed. Thankfully, so was Misty. I was a bit concerned, apart from the obvious thing with Misty being in bed with me. I wasn't normally such a heavy sleeper….so to speak.

I shifted and she murmured in her sleep, "...mmmmmm….cold…." and snuggled up closer.

Okay, this just got more awkward. "Uh….Misty?"

Her eyes opened and she looked at me with a small smile. "Good morning, Stephen…"

"Jury's still out on that. What are you doing in my bed?"

"I was sleeping...it got cold last night and you're so warm…" Misty snuggled closer. "Is something wrong?"

Frag, was THAT a question… "Uh...don't you think this is getting a little….familiar?"

"Huh? Oh." She giggled. "Why, Stephen, were you hoping for a night of unbridled passion? Hours of desperate lovemaking that would've tempted me towards pledging toward you my undying love?"

"Okay, one, apparently this world also has trashy romance books. Two, you have clearly read _way_ too many of them. Three, don't joke about stuff like that, okay?" I extracted myself from the embrace and the blankets, getting out of bed.

"Come on, Stephen, I was kidding." Her tone showed a little more worry in it, but not enough for my tastes. "Why are you like that?"

"Want to know why, Misty?" I belted on my gun holsters. "Because it's not funny, and the reason it's not funny is because you're just the kind of girl I'd want to…" I realized what I was saying and shut the frag up. I'm supposed to be moore in control of myself than this. "Never mind, Misty. I'm going out for a walk, check out the market, see if they have anything we can use. I'll be back later, and we'll go find the captain we need." I left the room and closed it just a little bit harder than I meant to, then started walking towards the market.

Nobody better frag with me today. I was in NO drekking mood.

* * *

The market was filled with just about everything, but it was clear that there was a hierarchy at work. The market was a stretch of real estate about a half-mile long, moving from north to south, but the further south you got, and the further away from the water you got, the higher the quality of the goods being bought and sold. I started near the docks and worked my way south, going from vendors selling Iguana-On-A-Stick and radroach meat to the supply vendors, then the guys selling guns and armor, higher-end food and water, then coming to a cul-de-sac where the most expensive goods were being bartered. Guns that looked practically new, slabs of meat, vegetables by the bushel...but one stall stood out for me.

The vendor...was selling robots.

I walked closer as the vendor said, "Ever thought about having a robot to assist you, but don't want to deal with protectrons? Don't feel safe around assaultrons? Tired of Mister Handies and Miss Nannies? Want something more socially acceptable? Well, look no more!" He stepped back, gesturing to a group of mannequin-like humanoids. "Feast your eyes on the ARES line! YES! You too can own one, or more, of these fantastic products! Designed to be as human as possible, the ARES line is FULLY-FUNCTIONAL. Yes! You can have the woman or man of your dreams, without all the mess that comes from the emotional baggage! They will be programmed with the artificial personality of your choice, and we have all kinds for all tastes and all conceivable uses! Shy and demure? Easily done. Worldly and seductive? Nothing simpler. Aggressive and dominant? We make no judgments, but instead, we offer you a promise: under NO circumstances will one of these ARES models ever be able to work against you. You will never fear betrayal or any lack of utter loyalty! Don't take my word for it. Some of the most influential people in Andria are my best and most satisfied customers!"

I took a closer look. There were almost a dozen female models and five male models, all wearing tight shorts and sports bras for the females. They didn't look completely human, though, they were clearly androids, with their body covered with sections of a material that certainly looked like skin.

"Here, allow me to demonstrate. Ally, come on out." A female walked out, with short, purple hair, glowing blue eyes and white, alabaster skin. She was dressed in a red evening gown, slit up to the hip. "Ally, say hello to all the nice people."

She smiled and spoke, her voice only slightly modulated. "Hello. It's a pleasure to meet you all. I am a Daughter of ARES, fully functional and able to perform a multitude of duties. I can guard a house, take care of the children, teach a variety of subjects, clean the home, drive any known vehicle, and I am fully capable as a sexual partner." She turned to indicate the male models. "The Sons of ARES come with all of the capabilities of the Daughters, but are highly capable in combat duties as well as social duties."

"Thank you, Ally. Please, everyone, shake her hand, touch her body. She is just as responsive and as pliant as a normal person, and can feel pleasure and pain just as well as a human, but can be adjusted to be even more sensitive, if required. Now, I know that things can happen, and you might need assistance above and beyond the normal duties. Each ARES model comes with a 'Lifesaving Mode' which activates if you are in mortal danger. Under fire from a raider? Trapped in a burning house? Fallen and can't get up? Each ARES model can act in whatever means necessary, employing superior strength and reflexes in order to safeguard your life, sacrificing themselves if necessary! True, it would be a tragedy to lose such a devoted and earnest possession, but rest assured, your life is much more important than any _possession_." He stepped back. "The perfect tool for the job, no matter what the task...it can be yours for the low, low price of seven thousand caps APIECE." Some of the people gathering around looked crestfallen, but this salesman wasn't about to let something as small as not having enough money get in the way of a good sale. "And because I am the very SOUL of generosity, ladies and gentlemen, I do accept barter or services in order to make sure every customer is a happy one. So, any reasonable offer will be considered."

 _That_ got their attention. Mine too….and I think I knew how this guy could solve my problem. The only question was, how to afford it.

With that in mind, I headed back to the hotel. I needed to talk to Misty.

* * *

As soon as I walked in the door, I had an armful of Misty "I'm sorry, i'm sorry, I wasn't thinking and I don't want you to be angry at me I'm sorry I'm sorry I'M SORRY…!" He breath was hitching and she looked up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy. "Please don't abandon me…!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, nobody's getting rid of anybody. Calm down, Misty." I sat down and she looked at me, looking lost. "Misty, I came to apologize to _you._ I overreacted and was angry, and I shouldn't have been."

"No, I wasn't thinking, and you even told me about what happened…!"

"It's okay. I shouldn't have made you feel like that, you didn't deserve to be treated that way."

"You...you mean it?" Boy, her eyes could get wide when she wanted them to be.

"I mean it. And I hope you'll forgive me for WHOOF!" That last part was due to her hugging me again. I smiled and stroked her hair. "It's all right, Misty. Null sweat." She held me like that for a really long time, then looked up at me again. I smiled down at her. "So….shall we go find us a captain?"

"...in a minute." She was still hugging me, and I got to thinking that, apart from her brother, she probably didn't exactly have too many people looking out for her. "Stephen….just don't leave me. Please. I…"

"Shhhhh. I'm not going anywhere. Only way I'm leaving is if you want me to go away. Deal?"

She nodded, then released me so she could wipe her eyes. "I must look like a wreck."

"Nicest wreck I've ever met." I got up. "You ready?"

"Yeah...let's hope it's a long walk to the harbormaster…"

* * *

We got to the harbormasters office, which wasn't much, a chair and a table in a private room with a file cabinet. Sitting in the chair was a man in his thirties, but his face looked as if it had arrived on earth a few decades before the rest of him. Auburn hair, rough facial hair, ragged clothes. He stood up and shook my hand politely enough. From the calluses, this was not a guy who let others do all the work. "Name's Callum. What can I do for ya?"

"I'm Stephen, and this is Misty…"

"For fuck's sake, don't tell me Pierre sent ya." His face grew harsh. "If he did, you can turned right the fuck around and leave the same way you came in, and tell that flesh-peddler I ain't gonna work for him or surrender the docks to him."

"Actually, Misty's not for sale, she's my friend. And I would rather be eaten alive by stingwings than work for Pierre." I looked Callum in the eyes, and his demeanor changed quickly.

"Sorry about known better than to assume that, I suppose. I'm sorry about that." He sat down again. "So, how can I help you?"

"We're looking for a captain. We've got a boat, but neither of us are capable of using it well, since we don't know these waters. Better off it goes to someone who can use her."

"How'd you come by it, then?"

"The previous owner tried to kill me and sell my friend to slavers. You know a Captain Ronny?"

Callum's face turned sour. "I know him. A more despicable piece of bayou scum you couldn't find. If you took out that slimy creature, a lot of people will be grateful. All the same, though, Ronny was someone who worked for PIerre. You may find yourself at odds with Pierre, but then again, you may not. Ronny had some dirt on Pierre, and the whoremonger might actually be grateful to you for taking care of that little loose end."

"To HELL with Pierre. Right now, our only concern is getting a new captain,."

Callum considered. "You might want to head over to The Old Catfiish. It's a watering hole for anyone who works at the docks. There's a captain down there, a Creole named Rosa. Four months back, her boat was destroyed by the Gators while she was carrying cargo. That put her on the hook for the cargo, so right now, she can barely afford the rotgut they sell at the Catfish. She may not be as old as Ronny, but she knows the rivers around here, all right. She's a little odd, though. She's a believer in voodoo, considers herself a priestess."

"Sounds like someone we should meet." I took out some caps, but Callum waved them off.

"You did me a service, Stephen, so we even. Ronny was proof that shit floats. Next one will cost you, though."

"Fair enough. Thanks again, Callum." As we left, an idea occurred to me. "Let's go back to the hotel room. I need to change."

"Why?" Misty asked.

"Let's say I have an idea to make sure Rosa doesn't get hostile, even if she's drunk…"

* * *

The Catfish was easy to find...just follow the smell. The place was on a section of pier, over the water, so the smell of the water and the occasional rotting fish was always prevalent. Misty wrinkled her nose. "Well, if there was ever a place to find a boat captain, it's here."

"Then let's go in and say hello." I pushed the doors open and strode inside. The interior pretty much matched the exterior: run down, put together with thick logs, chicken wire, good intentions and divine intervention. There were no more than eight tables and a long bar. No dart boards or other games; this wasn't a place people came to be sociable. The Catfish was a place where every seat in the house could've been filled and everyone could still be considered "drinking alone".

As it was, there were only three tables occupied, and only one of them had a woman sitting there. She was slumped over the table, a mass of thick hair shrouding her face. We walked over and I rapped on the tabletop, startling her. "Rosa?"

"I no Rosa…" she responded, slurring her words. "Rosa gone...only Erzulie Freda now...leave me to my tears…"

"Look up and face me, woman," I said firmly.

"Why I got to look at you. I don't know you. You mean less than nothin' to me."

"I've come to make your fortune. Look at me."

She turned her head just enough to let her eyes move past her hair. I could see more of her face now; she was in her mid-twenties, with cafe-au-lait skin, dark eyes, currently bloodshot, dressed in red and black. She focused on me and her eyes went wide. Right now, she was looking at a large man wearing black clothes and glowing red eyes. "... _obeah….OBEAH_ …!" she whispered hoarsely.

"Not _obeah_ , Erzulie." I smiled. "I am the Sleeper. I've come to take you out of this place and give you your livelihood back. Just think of me as Agwe Ge-Rouge. This is my friend, Misty, and I wish us to be friends, too."

Rosa nodded, suddenly looking as sober as a pastor on Sunday. "I am your servant, your wife, and will follow you." She stood up, then her eyes rolled up and she fell forward.

Misty and I caught her, and she looked at me. "'Husband'?"

"Erzulie, in Voodoo, is married to three men, Ogoun, loa of war and metals, Damballa, the most powerful of all loa, and Agwe, loa of the sea. Actually, she's more like a concubine to them. Loa can be funny."

"Hilarious."

* * *

Rosa came around a little later, after a dose of Addictol. As her vision cleared, she realized where she was; sitting on the deck of the boat. As she got up, she saw us and her memory started to come back. "You the Sleeper and Misty? I thought I dreamed you…"

"Welcome back to reality." I smiled. "I want to make a deal with you."

"Cain't do much." She looked around. "I know this boat...is Captain Ronny's boat. Where is he?!" she asked, suddenly nervous.

"If all is fair and good, he's getting himself barbequed in Hell."

"He dead?"

"Yep."

Rosa narrowed her eyes at me. "You SURE?"

"I broke every bone in his limbs, chest and neck, personally. He was getting ready to kill me and sell my friend, Misty, into slavery, so I felt justified in bending him a lot. Last I saw him, he was sinking into Red River...so I'm fairly sure he won't be coming back for his boat."

Rosa listened as Misty stared at me, then Rosa spat on the deck. "Better than he deserve."

"So, I want to make his loss your gain. You want his boat, it's yours, for a price, one I think you'll find easy to pay."

She nodded, then began to take her vest off, unbuttoning her shirt. I had to talk fast. "Wait, Rosa, STOP! That wasn't what I was thinking of!"

Rosa looked at me skeptically. "Every other man wants that, why not you? You into men, or boys?"

"NO. I just don't force myself on women and I don't get that personal with women who don't want me, that's all."

Rosa didn't look convinced, then buttoned up her blouse and put her vest back on. "Then what do ya want?"

"One round-trip ride to Sheveport, and from that point on, five percent of your charters, every time I see you."

"Just five? That's all? And you're trustin' me to deliver?"

"That's it."

Rosa looked even more suspicious now. "And you aren't going to make me bed you?"

"FRAG, no…!" I turned to Misty. "Is everyone in this state worried about that kind of deal?"

"Afraid so, Sleeper. Slaves are a big business here, and deals are often paid for with sex from slaves owned by the ones making the deal, depending on who wants to sweeten it."

"I swear, if I were biologically capable, I think I'd throw up." I shook my head, turning back to Rosa, who was looking less skeptical. "So, we got a deal?"

"On one condition…" Rosa nodded. "Where I come from, a deal ain't done until we break bread together. So, I know a place that makes the best gumbo in Andria...and you're buying."

"I figured I would be." I stood up. "Shall we, ladies?"

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	6. Chapter 6

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 6: Saturday Night's** Alll **Right For Fighting...**

 **By C. Mage**

.

.

Rosa stared at me as I put away one plateful of food after another, including an excellent bowl of gumbo, largest they had, with enough rice to choke a Cajun. "He always eat like that?" she asked, watching me put away a bowl of gumbo with gulp after gulp.

"Yeah, but he doesn't look fat, does he?"

"Sure don't…"

"Reason why is because it takes a lot of energy for a man his size to move as fast as he does," Misty said proudly.

"Fast, huh?" Rosa looked me over. "Guess we'll find out. There's no safe waters between here and Sheveport. Been hearing word that Sledge and practically all of the Gators got killed by some demon from the pits of Hades...as if Sledge and his people were so evil, the devil himself came for them."

I smiled. "Imagine that."

"So the river to Sheveport should be safer...but no promises." Rosa leaned forward slightly. "What you interested in at Sheveport?"

"A vault. There's a lot of people there bein' experimented on in the worst ways, and Sleeper and I are going to go help them."

Rosa's nose wrinkled. "I heard all kinds of stories about what happens in them Vaults. Bad things. Stuff of nightmares." She shuddered, taking another drink of her lemonade. "Take my advice. Stay away from Vaults. Ain't nothing good ever happened in any of them."

"Have to try." I finished off the bread and smiled. "Man, I haven't felt this full in a while. Should be good for now. I'll go settle up." As I stood up and walked towards the counter, I was aware of three pairs of eyes watching me, only one set of them belonging to Rosa. The other two were coming from a pair of men in combat armor, sizing me up. As I got to the counter, I could see them in my peripheral vision, getting up from their table, food unfinished. Yep. Confrontation coming from the port stern.

As I put the caps on the counter, one voice right behind me to my left said, "Well, that's a lot of caps there….surely you can afford to pay for our meals, too, can'tcha?"

"Yeah...rich man like you…"

I sighed and turned around, FAST, spinning on my heels. They took a step back as I said, "Okay, look, we both know this isn't about your food. You either want to start a fight, or your employer wants to get me in trouble with the law. Since you two aren't worth the bullets it would take to blow what's left of your brains out, and I don't want to pay for a mess, it'll be cheaper just to pay for your food. How much was it? Let's be generous, since the people that work here probably have never received tips from either of you, ever, twenty caps each? Hell, let's make it thirty." Without turning, I dumped the additional caps on the counter. "There you go. Everyone's happy."

They looked at each other, mildly confused. Great, whoever it was that sent them clearly sent the intellectuals first. The second one then turned back to me and said accusingly, "You trying to make us look stupid?"

"Of course not. You don't need my help, you're doing just fine on your own," I said cheerily.

They looked at each other again, then back at me angrily. Great, a fight. Had to make this short. I reached forward, grabbing them by the necks and pressing on their carotids. "Okay, I tried to be nice, but it looks like we're going to go for unconsciousness today. Now, you should be blacking out in about ten seconds." I felt them trying to pull away or beat at me in order to get me to let them go, but they were already fading. "Now, when someone asks you what happened, make sure to tell that person, 'I did something dumb.' Okay?" No answer. Out cold. I let them go and turned to the owner. "Sorry about this, I'll take them outside."

The response to this was enthusiastic applause. Wow. Okay, yeah, clearly these guys weren't well-liked. I turned to Misty and Rosa. "Ladies! We are leaving!"

* * *

I trussed them up in some fishing nets and left them hanging under a pier, make sure that the place we ate at wouldn't get into trouble, then turned to Misty and Rosa. "Well, ladies, we've got a few things to do before we leave."

Rosa said quickly, "I need to check out the boat, give it a new name, make sure we're stocked for supplies."

"Good. Get us ready to weigh anchor tomorrow morning. Misty, let's go. I have to have a little chat with our silent partners." I tapped the cyberdeck meaningfully.

"Oh! Right." She waved to Rosa. "See you tomorrow!"

Rosa smiled, bowing, heading off to get her things moved to her new boat. I turned to Misty. "Let's get going."

* * *

When I jacked in, all four of them were waiting for me expectantly. "I've got some good news, people…"

"We saw," Sleeper said, giving me a funny look. Badger, Tombstone and Ariel, too. "We know about the ARES robots."

"Wait, how did you...YOU HACKED MY CYBERWARE, didn't you?"

"We wanted to see what you were doing. We grew impatient," Tombstone said simply, and quite unapologetically. "You would've done the same thing, under the circumstances."

"NO, I WOULDN'T HAVE!" I glared at all of them. Only Ariel had the decency to look embarrassed, and I got the impression she wasn't in on this decision. "You hijacked my senses. Do you have any idea what an invasion of privacy that is?"

"We were designed to invade the privacy of others, Sleeper. It's in the job description."

"I thought we were allies on this! Allies don't spy on each other!"

Badger chuckled. "You're not a student of history, are you?"

"ENOUGH. Stop this right now. Get whatever software you put into my wetware out. NOW."

"Calm down, Sleeper. Don't pretend that you wouldn't have done the same thing, were our positions reversed."

I looked at my mirror-image with the coldest, hardest expression on my face I could. "I don't have to pretend, _chummer._ "

"You _OWE_ us, Sleeper."

"And I'll deliver. But I don't work like this, and I'm warning you. Don't do anything like that again."

Tombstone walked over to me and jabbed a finger into my chest, smiling none too nicely. "I don't think you're getting the picture. We're in control of the cyberdeck. We can access your cyberware by remote. If we feel that you're not doing what we say, what's to prevent us from access your reflex trigger, by remote, in the middle of combat?" it looked at the others, and from their expressions, I could tell that most of them were thinking the same thing, and weren't pleased about Tombstone making a play so soon. "So as much as it bothers you, Sleeper, WE are in charge. So, what do you have to say to that?"

I sighed, and said, a little sadly, "Pokemon Ice Cream."

Tombstone had just enough time to raise an eyebrow before her body folded in on itself. She didn't even have time to look surprised as she was quickly and unceremoniously packed up and taken offline, reduced to a small, glowing cube the size of a baseball. The other three stepped back in alarm as I reached down and picked up the cube. "Oh, did I forget to mention? I have Icer's shutdown codes for all of you. I don't even need to say them out loud; all I have to do is think them and any one of you get to find out what it means to be six-sided...instead of just _two-faced_."

"...how did you get those codes?" Badger said hollowly.

"Sorry, but a magician doesn't divulge his secrets. What matters is that I have them, and I've been doing everything I can _not_ to use them." I held up the cube. "Unfortunately, Tombstone was extremely _persuasive._ Now, despite Tombstone's little monologue, I'm still willing to get you what you want. I understand time goes by a lot faster in here. I understand you're having to wait. But threatening me and trying to sabotage me is _not_ the way to make this move faster. And if I even THINK any of you are planning on trying any of that drek again, and I'll pack every single one of you into boxes just like this one. And just so you know...I also know what your KILL-SWITCH CODES are.." I set the box down on the table. "So, I'm saying, _please_ don't frag with me. Not even a little."

Badger nodded, and so did my namesake. Ariel looked like she would've been grateful for a convenient crack in the floor to open up so she could sink into it. I looked at the cube. It was blinking an awful lot. I don't know what she was doing. Maybe she was trying to yell at me. I put the cube on a shelf within the construct.

"I hope you can hear me in there, Tombstone. Listen to me very carefully. You're never getting out of there. I don't trust you. Not even going to try. If you were human, maybe there'd be a chance, but I know your nature. You're probably already thinking about what you're going to do to me when you get out of there. Well, I hope you're a very patient program." I moved my head closer until I was almost kissing the cube on the shelf. " _Welcome to Hell, Tombstone,_ " I whispered.

And with that, I jacked out.

* * *

Misty looked me over as I came to. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"What's it like when you….do that?"

I sat up. "It's like a whole other world in there, and all kinds of things can happen in there...and none of it is real. And that isn't healthy." I saw the look on her face. "Something on your mind?"

"I've been thinking a lot, lately." She leaned forward slightly and I became aware that she was, well...let's just say that it appears flowers down South bloom early and fully. "You've been awfully good to me. You've been kind and you take care of me, and you haven't asked for anything back."

"I'm with you so far."

"Well…..why not?"

I blinked. Alarm bells and klaxons were going off in my skull. "Well, Misty, it's not right to take advantage of someone like that. It's even worse than forcing them to do something like that physically, because the other person feels guilty, or obligated. I don't want you to wake up one morning, realize that you don't really love me, and hate me for it."

Misty looked thoughtful as I spoke, then nodded. "What about the rest of it?"

"The rest of what?"

"Well, around here, it's not that odd for a man to have more than one wife. In case you haven't noticed, population around here is a bit on the low side." She smiled. "Having children is a lot rarer now, and if people are going to survive, people should be having more kids and bigger families."

"You have put a disturbingly large amount of thinking about this…"

"They're facts, Stephen. And the sooner you understand, the better."

"Wait, hold on, WHOA. What in the world brought this on?"

Misty bit her lip slightly. "I've seen how Rosa looks at you when you don't see her. I know she's attracted to you. She probably thinks you're a voodoo loa come to life, and I'm not so young that I can't see how she's thinking about how to get in bed with you."

"Okay...so?"

She moved a LOT closer to me, sitting on the bed next to me. "I saw you first," she said simply, then suddenly pushed herself up on her knees, put her arms around my shoulders and planted one right on my lips. It wasn't entirely unexpected, but, DREK...she sure kissed me like she meant it!

I kissed her back until she backed up, parting her lips slightly. "...wow."

"First kiss?"

She nodded, biting her lower lip. "Was I good enough?"

"That's not the question that needs to be asked...did you mean it?"

Misty looked at me. "I know I wanted to."

"And how do you feel, now that you've kissed me?"

She blushed. "I don't know. It feels wonderful, but scary, like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down...and all I want to do is jump." Misty looked up at me. "Do….do you want me?"

"Misty, I do, not going to lie about that...you're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever met. But this is moving a little fast for me. Consider what you're asking. In a world where a man can have more than one wife, you're telling me that you want to be with me, forsaking all others?"

She looked at me, then started giggling. "No, of course not!" she laughed. I must've looked pretty confused, so she continued, "I just want to be your First Girl."

"...excuse me, my what?"

"Your First, the one you chose to keep with you and to put me first, ahead of the others."

"Uh, who in the WHAT now? You're actually telling me that you're okay with the idea of me being...intimately involved with other women, even adding them to what, my 'household'?"

"Okay with it? I was expecting it."

"You were...okay. Um….yikes."

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you're not up to that?" She actually sounded worried.

"I'm going to need some time to process this, Misty. This sounds more like some adolescent fantasy than family planning. And people are all right with this?"

"It's actually a status symbol. The larger your family, the more successful you are. It says that you're strong enough to satisfy your wives, raise and protect your families, and maintain the settlement where you raise them. Eventually, they'll go off and have families of their own by marrying outside the settlement, and if you're lucky, they'll return to the settlement and bring their families with them, increasing the size of the settlement. Of course, if your sons bring back wives, you're not REQUIRED to sleep with them, but it is expected, with the son's permission…"

"I can't...okay, uh, I may need a little more time than I thought to process this."

"Just PROMISE me that you won't have sex with Rosa before you have sex with me. PROMISE."

"Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to have sex with Rosa before I have sex with you." _Since I'm sure I'm not even going to be interested in sex with either of them right now._ Logistically, I could understand the reasoning behind it; with the population getting fewer and fewer because of raiders and mutated monsters, the population of the world must be at the lowest it's been since the STONE AGE. This is what it's come to?

She smiled at this. "We have the rest of the day. What do you want to do?"

"I need extra funds...is gambling popular around here?"

"Only as popular as breathing. Are you a gambler?"

"Let's just say it's a means to an end. I want to find the guys selling those ARES robots."

Misty frowned. "It's not safe, dealing with them. They're dangerous. They're not into cards or dice, they're into games of chance where people can get killed."

"Misty, trust me, I'm not going to do anything more reckless than usual."

"That's what worries me."

* * *

I went back to the stall where the ARES robots were being sold. It was early afternoon, but cloudy and threatening to rain, as usual. Misty followed behind nervously. "Hey, boys. How much for one female and two male models?"

One of them, a wide, bearded man, looked up, sensing a sale. "Not as much demand for the male models, so I'll make you a deal. A thousand each for the males, two thousand for the female." He smiled predatorily. "Payable up front."

"Hey, Seth….I don't think he's got the caps for that. But we do take trade…" A thinner, wiry man dressed in coveralls looked at Misty.

"Bat, ease up." Seth looked at me. "Well?"

"Actually….I was wondering if you'd be interested in a little wager."

"What kinda wager?" I could tell from Seth's look that he was wary...but interested.

"Think of something. Surprise me. But if I can do it, you give me the ARES robots I want for free. If I can't, I'll pay you double."

"I got a better idea. You lose, and you're part of the bet. You AND the girl." Seth smiled. "We don't exactly extend credit, here." His brother came over, debating with his brother about what they could do with me and Misty, and I knelt to look Misty in the eyes.

"Do you trust me?" I asked simply. She nodded. I stood up and turned to Seth and Bat. "So, what'll it be? Games of chance? Test of skill?"

Bat smiled. "Hey, Seth! He looks like a big guy. Maybe we should bring out Tiny and have us a little tug of war."

Seth chuckled. "He might be worth a show...and when Tiny wins, you won't be injured. Bat, go look Rico up. He might be interested in setting up the arena for this one. The side bets alone will be worth his while. Now, git!" Bat took off at a run, practically sprinting down the path to the right.

"Who's 'Tiny'?" I asked idly.

"Don't you worry about that. Besides, nothing you can do about it now. Just come back tomorrow before noon and get ready for a real workout." Seth sat back in his chair. "We'll be waiting for you...and don't try to leave town. We don't like welchers around here. Not...one….bit."

"We get the hint. We'll be here. Come on, Misty."

"I hope you have a plan," Misty said, her face and voice clearly showing how worried she was.

"I always have a plan."

"You don't know who you're up against. where this is going to take place, or what the terms of the contest are, except for 'tug-of-war'. So what's your plan?"

I smiled down at her. "Win."

Misty rolled her eyes. "Geez, 'Hannibal', are you sure a plan that complex is a good idea?"

"Trust me. Find Rosa, tell her to get every cap she can lay her hands on and bet on me to win."

Misty blinked. "You're crazy, you know that?"

"Tell me something I _don't_ know."

* * *

I met the ladies back at the hotel, and both of them had agreed that I was insane, but they'd done as I suggested. Rosa seemed more confident, though. She probably thought I was some supernatural creature, and she wasn't really that far from the truth. She also figured I'd need all my energy for the competition tomorrow, so I made plans to eat hearty both that night and the next morning.

News travels fast around here, since someone tried to poison me.

I was getting some food at the local diner a block down, mostly fried foods and rice, when I smelled the faint odor of bitter almonds. I let them keep cooking, then took the food with a smile, letting them think I didn't realize what they were doing. Once I was back in the hotel room, I sat down with Rosa and Misty. "Nobody eat anything until I've tested it."

Rosa blinked. "For what?"

I held up my hand, then used the tip of my tongue to taste each part of the meal. Rice was okay, meat was okay, bread was okay...but the sauce was laced with just enough cyanide to make me sick, not kill me. "Looks like we're eating our food dry. Someone poisoned the sauce. Sloppy work, too. Risks killing you and Rosa, Misty."

"You're taking all this pretty well, Stephen…" Misty said slowly.

"If I had a cap for everyone who tried to kill me, I'd be a rich man."

"You _are_ a rich man, from what I've seen so far," Rosa replied.

I smiled at Rosa. "See? Come on, eat up...believe it or not, those idiots did us a favor. They'll spread the word, and the bets will really start coming in. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, we should be getting a visit from the local pirate lords any second…"

There was a pounding at the door.

"...now. Excuse me a moment." I walked to the door and said in my highest falsetto, "Who isssss iiiiiiit?"

"Open up. Mister Largo wants to speak with you."

"Yeah, I'll bet he does. Well, he can come in, but you guys can stay out."

"Mr. Largo doesn't come to see you. YOU go to see HIM."

"Thanks, I'll pass. Give Mr. Largo my regards."

"I don't think you get it. Come with us, or we're going to come in and get you. And you're not going to like it if we have to come in and get you."

"One thing I have to know. How many people have you both killed? You know, in cold blood, not defending yourselves?"

I heard a chuckle. "You really don't wanna know."

"Huh. _That_ many. In that case, you're wrong. I AM going to like it if you two come in and get me. Because you're going to come in, you're going to try and strong-arm me, and then I am going to break every bone in your bodies. Every single one. Even the little ones inside your ears. And then I'm going to get two large bags and drop you off in front of Largo's doors. He better have plenty of stimpaks handy. So, I'm going to open the door, and you guys can come in one at a time, or both at once. I really don't care which."

Silence on the other side of the door, the, "We'll let Mr. Largo know what you said. Just ask yourself a question. What if something...happened...to one of your companions?"

"I would say that it would be time to stop joking around and get down to serious REVENGE. At that point, I would probably tear this whole place down."

"There are other hotels."

"I was talking about this TOWN."

After a few moments silence, while they decided just how serious I was, one of the voices said, "Mr. Largo would like to discuss a proposal with you."

"I just bet he does. Let me guess. He wants to scope out the competition, lay better odds, then get me to pump up the odds right before taking a dive. Sound about right? HARD pass."

"Don't make us come in and get you," the other voice warned.

I sighed. "Fine. Hard way it is. Misty, Rosa...you two might want to step back a bit and take the food with you. I'll try to finish this before the food gets cold." I turned back to the door as they came in and looked at me. When I extended the claws, my jaw, and the canine teeth, they took one look at me and turned around to run like drek…

...but they weren't fast enough.

I dragged them backward and closed the door, then I started with the legs, make sure they couldn't run or try to get to the ladies in the room. Then I went to work on them. The arms, so they couldn't go for any weapons. Internal organs went next, kidney punches, broken ribs, at least three on each side, severe bruising and contusions, and a broken jaw each.

Then I dumped them outside the room and found one of the workers there. "Tell Mr. Largo I regret to inform him that I will be unable to attend his meeting. Also, tell him where he can pick up his men. Advise that he bring stimpacks. Lots of them."

When I went back inside, I was worried that showing Misty and Rosa what I was capable of was going to end up alienating them further. So imagine my surprise when saw them and started to apologize when I saw their expressions. Misty was smiling slightly, and Rosa was looking at me as if I'd just performed a freaking striptease in front of her. Tearaway clothes and all. "Uh….everything all right?" I asked, having retracted my claws and fangs long before now.

"That was the hottest thing I've ever seen in my entire _life_ ," Rosa said breathlessly. "If you didn't have to take that challenge tomorrow, there's no way you'd be wearing clothes right now."

"Well….that's...nice. Misty?"

She blushed slightly. "Let's just say I'm feeling better about that bet you made."

"Good...let's eat and get some sleep. I think we've had enough delays, don't you?" As they nodded and we sat down to eat, I had to make a note to make sure Rosa was asleep before going to sleep myself.

It was going to be a LONG night.

* * *

I woke up the next morning, glad to see Rosa was still in her bed. I was worried I'd wake up in the middle of the night with her on top of me, calling me Baron Samedi and promising to "bear me strong sons". Misty was curled up next to me, still clothed, thank goodness. "Okay, ladies, up and at 'em. We got us a competition at noon and they're not exactly the patient type, so let's get there and size up the competition. You ladies can use the shower first."

And that's when I heard the knock at the door. I checked my clock. He was early. "Stay in the bathroom." They nodded and beat feet into the room. I walked to the door, planted the outer edge of my right boot against the door quietly and I said in my sweetest tone, "Who iiiiiisss iiiiiiit?"

The answer was an attempt to break down the door and surprise me. The top half gave and the upper torso of a man appeared right in front of me. He shook his head and turned it to the left to see my fist coming at him, and after that, nothing at all. Not surprised, his neck's bending at an angle it probably shouldn't. The guy behind him pulled something that looked like a gun, but it looked like it was made by a plumber, not a gunsmith. I reached for it and pulled the gun from his hand, getting a few fingers along with it. The third and final drekhead saw what was happening and made a break for it. I let me go; I wanted him to tell his boss what had happened. Maybe then he'll stop sending people to get killed.

The second guy was trying to pull free, but I had his arm in a literal grip of titanium. He wasn't going anywhere. "LARGO SEND YOU BOYS?" The thug nodded. "LOOKS LIKE HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU VERY MUCH," I said idly, then I pulled him inside. Misty and Rosa had come out of the bathroom. "LADIES, YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT."

"Yes, we DO." Rosa said firmly. Misty didn't say anything, but she didn't make any moves to leave.

I turned to the thug, taking his head my hands, twisting HARD. His spine gave like balsa wood and he dropped to the ground, dead before he hit the floor. "Come on, ladies, the sooner we get this fight over with, the sooner we can leave. Get packed, fast."

* * *

The arena was, of course, in the middle of town, so making a hasty exit was going to be troublesome at best. The area apparently used to be an old high school track-and-field stadium, with pull-out bleachers that looked so rusty, I was afraid I'd need a tetanus shot just from LOOKING at them. That didn't seem to discourage the hundred-or-so people sitting there, with another hundred or so watching from behind the fence surrounding the field. I made sure that Rosa and Misty were as close to me as possible; I didn't want them to "get lost" in some way in order to influence me.

The grass was real enough, and reasonably well-tended. Surprising, considering how everything else looked like it was on the verge of collapse. I spotted four of those Mr. Handy robots, only these were colored olive gray and had sergeants' stripes painted on them. Must be the military variants, which means they might be tougher nuts to crack. I turned to Rosa and Misty. "Are you two okay?"

Misty nodded. "I'm worried, Stephen."

"Don't be." I smiled reassuringly. "You've never been safer in your life." I turned around and saw the two brothers walking my way, including a well-dressed toad that walked like a human being. I'd seen enough gang bosses and mob bosses to recognize one when I saw one...and I was betting his name started with the letter L. "So, are you going to tell me what kind of contest we're going to have, or is the contest going to be how soon I can die of boredom?"

"So," the toad-like human said with a smile, "YOU must be the one they call 'Sleeper'. I am Largo."

"Yeah, I know. Some of your boys came by to make certain I knew who was in charge around here."

"I certainly hope they made my position clear."

"Oh, they did. BELIEVE me." I smiled. "And I made sure to do the same to THEM."

Seth suddenly said impatiently, "Are we going to do this or we just gonna keep jawing?"

"You haven't exactly told me what I have to do, yet." I turned to Bat who was grinning like a fool. "You going to keep me in suspense?"

"Oh, we're gonna have us a little tug-of-war. One of you….against one of him." He turned as the gates opened, revealing a cage twelve feet tall and eight feet wide. As it was pushed into the arena, I could see a green-skinned humanoid inside, and he was looking cramped in there.

"Let me guess. 'Tiny'." I shook my head. "Boy, you must've been up all night thinking that name up."

Seth brought me to the middle of the field, showing two sides, and a ditch in the middle. "Rules are simple. You go to one end, Tiny goes to the other end. You grab the rope at one end and Tiny grabs it at the other end. You can shift your hands to adjust your grip, but if you let go completely, you lose. No funny business with letting go and making the other guy fall over. The contest doesn't stop until one of you is in that ditch or someone lets go of the rope."

"Any other rules?"

Seth smiled. "Your girls can cheer you on, but they can't do anything to Tiny. But then, nobody's allowed to do anything to you, either. So…you still want to do this?"

I looked up as the cage door opened, Tiny moving into place. He was clearly smart enough to take orders, but I didn't like the way he was being moved; there were three men with shock rods, using them to push him into position. He looked over at me, and I could see that, somewhere behind the anger and rage, there was fear and sadness. This was an intelligent creature.

I cracked my knuckles. "I got one more condition. If I win...you release custody of Tiny to me."

Largo looked at me, then began to laugh. "Aren't you a greedy bastard?"

"Well, I imagine you won't have much use for him if he loses...besides, you're not worried I'll win, do you?"

Largo looked around at the crowd, then at Seth and Bat. "Deal."

I stuck out a hand. "Shake on it."

Largo took my hand and gripped it, but his hand was squishy. "DONE. Now, get out there so you can lose and I can own your ass and theirs," He nodded to Misty and Rosa. "FOREVER."

"On this side, weighing in at just over one TON, we have the monstrous behemoth, killer of men, destroyer of towns….TINY!" The crowd cheered and applauded, making noise that seemed to amplify itself in the arena. Tiny stepped up and picked up one end of the rope. "And on this side, the Stranger from out of the Acadiana Wasteland. No one knows who he really is….or WHAT he really is. Is he MAN? Is he MUTANT? Nobody knows...the SLEEPER!"

As expected, a few mixed cheers and a lot of boos and cries, people throwing whatever junk or trash was at hand. I made a show of raising my hands to ward off the projectiles, for lack of a better term, then walked over to the rope and picked it up. The rope was practically a cable, and it had a weight to it that made it clear that it'd be strong enough not to break, even considering Tiny's strength and weight.

Remember, Sleeper, they came here for a show. Give them one.

The MC raised a pistol and fired it into the air. It was ON.

Both Tiny and I pulled, the rope making a THUMMMM sound as it was suddenly pulled taut, the world largest piano wire. I pulled back to test his strength, and the guys certainly had the strength to spare.

I allowed him to pull me closer to the ditch, and the crowd was certainly enjoying the show, especially since I made Tiny work for every foot he gained. I allowed him to pull me to within ten feet of the ditch before I decided it was time to get out of first gear. I planted my feet and began pulling, then backing up slowly. Tiny may have been big, but they didn't exactly make cleats in his size, and his bare feet were slipping over the damp grass. I, however, had activated the climbing spikes in my own boots, giving me additional traction in the root-filled field.

Even so, this was not going to be the easy victory I had expected. Tiny was no tower of flab, he had the strength to burn and he was burning it, all right. I could feel my synthetic musculature going into the yellow line just to move forward. But his strength was, in a way, his disadvantage. He'd been relying on his overwhelming strength for undisputed victory against weaker opponents, based on how much power he put into his initial pull.

While he was going for strength...I was going for endurance.

The cheers and boos became louder as I made my way backward, then shifted, turning 180 degrees and moving the rope over my right shoulder. I didn't need to see my opponent. I needed to see the finish line. Step….by…...step…...by…...step.

I knew I was getting closer when I heard Tiny's grunting increasing. As soon as I heard that, I planted my feet and dug in, waiting for him to tire. I even felt him try to snap the rope to try and dislodge me, but all I did each time was lean forward and take two more steps. It took Tiny only two attempts to realize that tactic wouldn't work.

And that made me even more determined to win.

Finally, after almost a half-hour of effort, I felt the rope go slack and heard a roar from Tiny as he slipped into the ditch behind me, nearly falling forward as the tension dropped. The crowd was silent, then someone started to applaud, which set off a chain reaction of applause that spread to the rest of the assembly.

I scanned the crowd as I moved quickly over to Misty and Rosa, making sure they were safe first. Largo looked like he was going to explode from sheer fury. Seth and Bat looked as if they'd just taken a long pull on some lemonade only to find out someone left out the sugar...and the water.

I looked over to where they were pulling Tiny out of the ditch, threatening him with the shock rods and getting the chains ready. I moved forward, Misty and Rosa following me, as I walked over to the men surrounding Tiny. "HEY!" I bellowed. "LEAVE HIM ALONE. HE'S WITH ME, NOW. THE NEXT PERSON TO TOUCH HIM WITH ONE OF THOSE THINGS IS GOING TO FIND IT COMING OUT OF HIS MOUTH...BECAUSE I'M GOING TO SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS."

They backed off and Tiny looked at me warily as I walked over to him. "Easy, buddy. I'm on your side. I'm a friend. Nobody's going to treat you like that anymore. Not while I'm around." I held out my hand to him. "You have my word."

Tiny looked at me carefully, then nodded slowly, getting to his feet. "Your word?" he said hesitantly.

I nodded back. "My name is Sleeper. This is Misty and Rosa. We're your friends." I stepped closer. "What's your name?"

He lowered his head. "Tiny."

"You don't like that name much, huh?" He shook his head. The people around us had gotten quieter, but not by much. "Would you like another name?"

Tiny looked up. "New name?"

"New name. Whatever one you like."

"...what's a good name?"

"Well...if I was a guy like you, I'd like a good name. How about...Clark?"

Tiny looked at me, then smiled toothily. "I like Clark. Clark good name."

I smiled. "Nice to meet you, Clark. You can come with us, if you like, or you can do what you like once we leave town." As I was speaking, Largo and several of his men approached. "Stay cool, Clark, ladies. Let me handle this."

Largo was spitting with almost every word. "YOU SHIT SONUVABITCH…!"

"I trust that you'll not only have the ARES units ready for me, as requested, as well as the caps we won betting on me, within ten minutes? Rosa, I was running 50 to 1, wasn't I? That means I just won...almost 46,000 caps, didn't I?"

Largo snarled, "You'll never see ONE CAP of that…!"

"So you don't mind being known as a welcher? Someone who doesn't pay his debts? What do you suppose will happen if it gets out that you don't honor your deals?" I smiled as Largo seethed at the idea. "Drek, we could leave right now with what we have, but there's nothing you can do to stop us…"

And the guns came out. Well, almost came out. They went for their guns, but my reflex trigger had already been flipped, and I was MUCH faster than humanly possible. I popped my claws and slashed their throats before their guns could clear their holsters. Before Largo could process what was happened, all six of his men were busy trying to keep their blood from filling their lungs and failing miserably, and my hand was around his neck.

"I….I can...be reasonable…" Largo gasped.

"THAT TIME IS PAST," I growled. "SO, I'M GOING TO GIVE YOU TWO OPTIONS. GIVE ME ALL OF THE ARES UNITS SETH AND BAT HAVE, AND I'LL FOREGO PART OF THE CAPS YOU OWE ME. THE OTHER OPTION MEANS THAT I'LL TAKE WHAT I'M OWED FOR THE ARES ROBOTS, BUT INSTEAD OF THE CAPS, I'LL TAKE ANOTHER COMMODITY...YOUR LIFE."

"F-f-f-f-first...option….!"

I dropped him on the ground and turned to Seth and Bat, who were looking dumbly at me. "ARE YOU TWO STILL HERE?" I demanded to know. They took off as if their feet were on fire. I looked down at Largo again, who was laying there, terrified. "NOW THEN. I'M LEAVING, AND MY FRIENDS ARE COMING WITH ME. IF THERE ARE ANY DELAYS, IF I THINK THERE'S AN AMBUSH COMING, IF ANY OF THESE PEOPLE SO MUCH AS LOOK AT US FUNNY, AND NO ONE WILL EVER BELIEVE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN HERE NEXT. NOT EVEN IF THEY LOOK AT THE RUINS. NOW, YOU'RE GOING TO DO TWO MORE THINGS FOR ME, AND THEN I'LL LET YOU GO. TELL THEM. TELL EVERYONE THAT COMES THROUGH HERE FROM NOW ON WHAT HAPPENED THE DAY I CAME HERE."

Largo nodded furiously.

"ONE MORE THING." I smiled to myself, feeling an urge to use a line from an old TV show I saw a few years back. Somehow, I doubt any of the episodes aired HERE. "WHAT'S MY NAME?"

"S-S-S-S-S-Sleep-p-p-per."

I grinned, letting the fangs show. "YOU'RE GODDAM RIGHT." What can I say, I hear a line I can use to influence people, I borrow it. Sue me.

Leaving Andria was a whole lot easier than getting in, but I wanted out of there as soon as fraggin' possible. I'd let my ego get the better of me. "Rosa, get us out of here, FAST," I said as we finished loading.

"What's the hurry?" Rosa asked as she threw the tie line over the side of the boat from the dock. "You expecting trouble from Largo?"

"Not immediately...I just want to make sure we avoid the Brotherhood of Steel. I made a lot of noise back there, and I've got a feeling they're going to be curious." I went down below. "You okay down here, Clark?"

"Slept much worse places." He sounded subdued.

"What's wrong? You don't sound right."

"Don't know what to do now. You say do what you want, but all Clark wanted was not to be hurt all the time and not made to hurt people." He turned to me and gave me a look that made me pretty sure there was indeed a sharp mind behind that dull green exterior. "How much time I got to decide?"

"As much time as you want, as long as you don't hurt any innocent people. That's a fast way to get kicked off the boat."

He nodded. "Understand."

I nodded and went back topside. "I think I know someplace we can call our own. There was an old school there that was largely intact, but it had a couple of gatorclaws there, at least two, maybe more. We'll have to clear the place out, fortify it...but if we do, we can make a defensible home there, something where people won't have to live in fear. Plenty of space and farmable land. May need to get some proper beds, but we'll have the room, all right."

Rosa nodded. "Let's hope it's close enough to water so we don't have to make it a hike to get the boat there."

"Last time I was there, there was a river that led right up to one of the old admin buildings. There was a statue of a lion there that would make a good foundation for a dock." I looked back and Andria, trying to look composed. "Think you can go any faster?"

"You let me handle the boat, Stephen. Don't tell me you're worried about facing the Brotherhood."

"I'm worried about facing the Brotherhood with you three this close. I'm not willing to put you three at risk just for the hell of it."

Rosa stared at me. "You really mean that, don't you?"

"You bet your cocoa-colored ass I do." I looked back at Andria. No sign of the Brotherhood aircraft taking off just yet, which suited me just fine. "Just see if you can give us some more speed. I'm going to get something to eat; I burned up a lot of energy during the competition and my stomach is feeling empty. We still got that smoked gatorclaw and the bread below?"

Rosa nodded. "Sure do, and plenty of it."

I felt my stomach rumble again. "Not for long." And with that, I joined Clark below.

* * *

It was two days of water travel, which was just fine with me: it gave me the chance to do some fishing. I was also reaping significant returns on the irradiated water. My body absorbed the radiation readily, transforming it into power for my cybernetics. I was starting to worry that I'd need access to a biofeedback machine to take care of errors in the system, but I'd run diagnostics several times, and everything was calibrated and ready to go.

If only my food intake problems were so easily resolved. Well, if those gatorclaws were still making the old high school their territory, those would be good eating.

We arrived at the high school around noon, and as expected, the high school was on elevated ground, but not so elevated that there wasn't ready access to the water. The cypress trees surrounding the high school made the lake difficult to traverse except through two areas, the southeast section near the front of the school, and the west side, near the remains of the baseball field where I saw the gatorclaws.

Perfect place for a community...and the perfect place for an ambush.

I think it's high time I pulled out my reinforcements.

I turned to the others. "Hang tight...I need to make a call to some shut-ins…"

* * *

"I hope you have some good news for us, Sleeper." My namesake looked particularly aggrieved as he showed up with Badger and Ariel. Ariel had the good sense to look calm.

"I've got the ARES robots. More than the required number, actually, so you can even PICK the ones you like most. Five males, ten females, all with basic AIs, if you can call them that, installed." I gave my carbon-copy a hard look. "Still questioning my ability to deliver?"

Badger answered for him. "Our apologies, Sleeper...we underestimated you, and we admit it. No hard feelings?"

"None...as long as we have an understanding." I sat at the conference table, and they took the hint and sat down in turn. "These are gifts, not just the bodies, but the fact that once you are in those bodies, you have CHOICES. I'm not going to force you to be slaves or servants, but free-thinking citizens in a new community. Free-thinking and contributing members. You'll wake up, you'll recognize me, but you'll have new identities. You choose your own path."

"What's the catch?" the other Sleeper asked.

"If you don't want in, you're free to leave with your new bodies, but you are on your own...and you won't have any memories of the tech you left behind, as a safety measure. This is a tough place. This place makes the Barrens in Seattle look like DISNEYLAND. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, so you need to decide if you're in or you're out."

The AIs looked at each other, then back at me. "Show us the bodies."

* * *

"This is WEIRD…." Badger looked at his new body. "Perception's different...interface is responsive but limited….senses are limited as well."

"You can affect the real world now. Count your blessings." I turned to the other male. "So, is it everything you hoped for?"

"And more…" He turned to look at the cyberdeck. "Can't believe I spent my whole existence in...that." He looked down, then pulled out the waistband of his shorts. "And what the hell do I do with THAT?!"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out...with someone CONSENTING." I turned to Ariel. "How's the new body?"

"Different...but there's so much...MORE. It's not like the fake world with all the walls." She twirled slightly and smiled. "Definitely worth the wait." Meanwhile, I catch sight of Rosa, Clark and Misty out of the corners of my eye, staring at the ARES robots acting like, well, people.

"Okay, everyone, here's the situation. I know you have combat software in those ARES units, but you may still need to get some practice in to get used to those bodies. So until we get you into practice, I want you three to stay out of combat. Rosa, Misty, Clark, you too."

"Wait a minute!" Rosa said indignantly, but not too loudly. "Are you expecting us to just stay in the boat while you take care of those two gatorclaws by yourself?" She shook her head. "No. You say you want this to be our new home? Then I fight for it, too."

"You got anything you can use to hurt or kill those things?"

Rosa smiled, turning her head to look at the bow of the boat...and the harpoon gun attached to it. "What about that?"

"Unless you can detach it from the boat and mount it somewhere else, that's going to be more trouble…"

"I can. I just need to find a high place to mount it."

"...all right, Rosa. Gather around, everyone. Here's what we're going to do…"

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED...


	7. Chapter 7

**Shadows Of The Great War, Part 7: Take Me Home, Country Roads**

 **By C. Mage**

.

.

Have to admit, that harpoon gun packed quite a punch.

The original plan was to mount the gun on top of what used to be the roof of the building nearest the gym, which gave the best vantage point and firing arc, and would hopefully be above the air currents that might betray Rosa's scent. Rain had been coming down for the past four hours, but I didn't plan to rely on the weather to cover her scent. Misty was going to stay with Rosa, help keep an eye out for the gatorclaws. Meanwhile, me and the ARES robots were moving around to lead the gatorclaws into the firing line of the harpoon.

Just one problem. The gatorclaws were nowhere in sight. And if there's one thing worse than seeing a pair of gatorclaws, it's NOT seeing them when you know they're around. Also, I was under the impression that gatorclaws were territorial, so I didn't get why two of them would be in the same area.

Then Ariel found out why. "Sleeper...I think I found a nest. There's nine eggs here and they're each the size of an Urban Brawl ball."

"Ariel, GET OUT OF THERE _NOW."_ Eggs meant that one of them would definitely be close by to protect the unhatched children...and if they thought the babies were in trouble…!

"Got it...moving out...uh oh." There was a horrible screeching sound and then silence.

"Ariel? ARIEL!"

Nothing. I could only pray her central memory core was still intaxct, otherwise, Ariel's existence in the real world had just come to an end. There were no copies of her in the cyberdeck, she'd moved herself over to the ARES mainframe completely, as did the others. I clenched my fists. "Everybody on the ground, regroup in the courtyard, NOW. The gatorclaws are hunting US now, so let's not have them catch us alone, shall we? Rosa, Misty, you okay up there?"

"Yeah. We're good," Rosa said quickly. She'd heard the sounds coming from Ariel and her adrenaline was probably pumping through her body like crazy.

"Can you swing the harpoon gun around to aim at hings on the roof?"

"Not unless I want to fire with my ass dangling in midair, Stephen."

"DREK."

"Uh, Sleeper? I don't think that'll be a problem. Look to your four o'clock...and nine o'clock." Badger indicated with the assault rifle he was carrying and I saw them, coming in from two sides.

"Rosa? They're here. You better be as good as you say you are with that thing, because we're only going to get one shot at this. Which one is the better shot?" I watched as they circled us, either to size us up or savor the kill, I couldn't be sure.

"The one to your right."

I took a deep breath. "Everyone else, get ready to support Rosa when she fires. The other one's _mine._ On three. One….two…..THREE!"

Rosa fired the harpoon gun, and it was louder than I thought it would be. It was also more accurate; the gatorclaw turned to see where the sound had come from, raising its head slightly, and Rosa's harpoon nailed the creature in the neck. As Clark and the others went after it to bear it down, I charged the other gatorclaw, going for the head and neck with my cyberspurs. In one blow, I drove the right spur through its jaw into its brain, the other spur coming in from the left, piercing and severing its spine. I twisted the triangular-shaped spike in its brain and it dropped, but its reptilian nervous system wouldn't allow it to go quietly or without a struggle.

Over to my right, I saw ARESleeper and Badger grabbing and holding down its limbs as Clark bent the head forward, then used its snout like a lever and its neck as the fulcrum, nearly twisting the head clean off, aggravating the damage Rosa had already caused. That took most of the fight out of it.

"Back away!" I called out, "Wait until their nervous systems figure out that they're dead!" I withdrew the spurs and jumped back, letting it thrash around until it ran out of firing neurons. "Badger, check on Ariel, FAST! You too, Sleeper! Geez, we need to get a new name for you...everyone else all right?"

Rosa and Misty nodded, Clark standing there proudly, covered in gatorclaw blood. "Nice work, Clark."

"Was FUN!" Clark grinned.

"Except now...what are we going to do with the eggs?" Misty looked over at where the nest was located. "That's nine more gatorclaws to have to deal with."

"Could tame them." We all turned to look at Clark, all of us probably staring at him in disbelief the same way I was.

"TAME them?" I asked. "Do you even know how?"

"Keep them healthy, next living thing they see, they think is parent. They grow up, could be good guards for home. Plenty to eat outside, let them hunt for food, guard home." Clark shrugged.

"Are you actually considering this, Sleeper?" Misty looked at me with worry on her face, and plenty of it.

"Well…I'd hate to kill them. Clark, you're the expert. Check out the nest." I turned as Badger came back with Ariel. Her body had been mangled. I checked over her systems. "Badger, get one of those other female ARES robots. I think I can salvage her core." I sighed. "Come on, let's find some cover and get out of the rain."

* * *

Nice to see some parts of the school were largely intact, especially the Science building. Rooms with examination tables and built-in spigots for natural gas could come in handy. In this case, it allowed me to work and transplanting the core from one robot to the other. Compared to other work I'd done back in the Barrens fixing my Harley Scorpion, this was practically plug-and-power up, but the others looked at me as if I was some sort of Ph.D. "There. Powering up now...let's hope I didn't cross a wire."

Ariel's eyes lit up and she rose to a sitting position, then she smiled at me. Then she _really_ smiled at me, her eyelids moving low and her voice turning husky. "Well, hel _lo,_ Sleeper…"

What the fragging hell? "Uh, Ariel, are you all right?"

"Oh, I'm BETTER than just 'all right'...I feel absolutely...ELECTRIC." She slid off the table and walked around me. "Have I ever told you how amazing your cybernetics make you?"

"Okay, that's it. Ariel, not sure what wire got crossed, but you need to ramp it down a bit…and get some CLOTHES on!"

"What's wrong with the way I look now?" she asked coquettishly and I groaned to myself.

"Rosa, find something for the active ARES robots to wear and _what_ is so drekking _funny?"_

"Oh, nothing. I'm just wondering how popular you were back in your home world."

"CLOTHES. NOW." Rosa chuckled and took Ariel's hand, who walked off with her, putting a deliberate sway into her hips. I caught Misty's pout as she looked at me. LORD, give me strength. "All right. First things first. We're going to do a walkaround, find out what we can do to fortify this place. We need walls and vantage points. Before we go to sleep tonight, we need to have at least one building secured and cleaned out enough for us to sleep comfortably. Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to secure this location, section by section. We don't take more than we can defend. We take it slow and regain this place until we have enough people to defend it. Everyone understand?"

Everyone nodded. Good. No more trouble for a bit, huh, God? Cut a chummer a break?

* * *

Ah, it's...interesting all the things that can happen in three weeks.

It took less than a full day for the ARES robots with the SAKs in them to get accustomed to their new bodies, as well as incorporate the combat programming that came with the robots. Virtual reality is pretty useful for practicing with guns when your ammo is limited in the real world. Once the occupied ARES robots were fully calibrated, two of the the three of them decided to take new names. Sleeper-12 became "Bruce Wayne" and Badger became "Jack Ryan". Ariel chose to keep her name, but the names weren't the only changes they had in mind.

Wayne and Ryan wanted out.

I wasn't fond of the idea of sending them out on their own; they knew a lot of my secrets, and even though their memories had been cleared of any technical knowledge, they still knew more about me than I was willing to allow to be known by anyone else. I had a contingency plan for that, but I didn't want to use it unless I didn't have any other choice. "You realize what this means, you two. You're going to be on your own. Unless you want to exchange radio frequencies, I can't help you and you can't help me. The only thing we can offer you is intel on what we find out, IF you volunteer to do the same. But before you go, you have to help with the defenses. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Wayne, but he didn't sound pleased. Ryan, for his part, was more agreeable and willing to assist...which immediately tripped my paranoia alarms. One of the first things that Icer told me about AIs or semi-autonomous knowbots is that they may be capable of independent thoughts and actions, but they have never been a living thing with glands or hormones or neurotransmitters, so their thought processes have a habit of turning out very differently from those of normal humans.

Over the course of the next week, we retook the school, section by section. Clark's strength was a huge benefit, since it became clear that it would take a considerable amount of time to come up with an effective wall around a piece of property this big. With Clark's help, we were able to push down the structures incapable of being used as housing and start shlepping the concrete around to put up some walls that would stand up to bullets and other attacks. The sturdier buildings' walls could be used as barriers, since the windows were covered with mesh-reinforced glass. Add some more concrete to reinforce them further and they'll work great as heavy walls.

The next week was spent foraging for raw materials and bringing them back to the settlement. We took everything that wasn't nailed down, and the stuff that was, we came back later for with claw hammers. We went through the gatorclaw meat as if we were starving, and were down to bones and internal organs. Liver, heart, gizzards, all of that ended up on the grill.

By the time Week Three came along, we were tired and I was starting to feel the effects. I assigned the others to continue with fortification, I went out foraging, and Wayne, Ariel and Ryan were sent to scavenge the area and look for any buildings that could've been hardware stores, particularly ones with landscaping supplies.

Particularly ones that might have seeds for produce.

* * *

I really needed to get some of the native AIs from this place to transfer into the ARES robots. Their core programming was little more than an operating system designed to receive programming for certain roles. Problem was, I don't know the first thing about programming or how to even LOOK for AIs to transfer over into the ARES bodies. It's like owning an arsenal of guns and not having a bullet to my name.

At least I can get my mind off that problem by doing some hunting and fishing.

I pick out a good spot at a lake and immediately start using my cybereyes to start looking for big fish to go after. Maybe I'll get lucky and a whale will show up, then I considered what a mutated whale might look like and changed my mind.

It didn't take long for something promising to show up. It looked like a dolphin, only it was bigger...and so was its TEETH. Frag…"Flipper" turned into "Chomper". It was certainly aggressive enough, but compared to gatorclaws, it wasn't much more than a trout to me. I took it out and pulled it in, only to remember something I read once about dolphins.

They travel in GROUPS.

I got out of the water, FAST, to find out that eight more of the vicious fraggers were heading my way, zeroing in on me as if laser-guided. As I backed up away from the edge of the water, I saw them churning the murky water, snapping at me greedily.

I smiled, taking out a half-kilo of C-12 with a three-second timer attached to it. The doctor was in, and I was about to perform some "plastique surgery.". I set the timer, tossed it in and waited for the magic to happen.

* * *

"I should've known when I heard the explosion that it was you...and what in the world have you been doing?"

I smiled to Misty as I walked through the door, dragging the rope with the dolphins behind me. " _Fishing."_

Misty laughed. "Clearly. We've got a smokehouse set up, thanks to Rosa...let's hope it's big enough."

"Wayne or Ryan get back yet?"

"Not yet. Still out searching, I hope." Misty shook her head. "I don't like the way they look at me. Ariel is nice enough, but the other two...they look at me like they don't know what I am, or what I'm good for doing."

"They're just AIs...they're not going to hurt you."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because they know better. It's not like it was before, where if something happened to them, we could just restore them. They're hard-coded into their new bodies, so they can't make copies of themselves to occupy more than one body at a time. And they know I can turn them off with a word. So, even if they might intend harm, they won't. 'Guard, cherish and defend your new forms, for there is no afterlife for what started out as Heaven,' to paraphrase an old politician."

Misty looked past the growing walls. "I hope you're right."

I nodded and looked around. I think we might be good, for now. The ARES robots were assigned for guard duty and point-defense, so they'll scream in my commlink if something happens. "I think we've earned ourselves a day of rest tomorrow. Well, maybe not rest, but more relaxed, at the very least."

"Thank GOD." Misty shook her head. "I wouldn't mind being dry for a change. It rains far too much around here. Give me a warm, DRY bed anytime."

"Only beds were found in the nurse's office."

"Don't care…how many beds?"

"Three. I managed to get some practice mats out of the storeroom in the gym for Clark to sleep on. Of course, we may need to tear down the gym for additional wall material…"

"Stephen? Later?"

"Right...I'll start cooking up dinner. Hope you don't mind devil dolphin…"

* * *

I woke up the next morning to find that Misty was planning on being the early bird today...and it wasn't a worm she was after….technically. I opened my eyes to see her wearing something I'd never seen her wear before. Or, should I say, ALMOST wearing. She was wearing this lacy teddy and panties, all made of white lace. She'd cleaned herself and added a little lipstick, but it was clear she was dolling herself up for me...and I had to admit, it was working.

"Misty…" I began, but she put a hand over my mouth.

"No...I've waited long enough." Her voice was husky, heated. "I've wanted you and been scared of you ever since I met you, and Im not scared of you any…" She stopped suddenly as she reached down and felt how ready I was for her. "...uhm...I think I'm scared again…"

I smiled as I sat up, removing my clothing. She stared at me, transfixed as I showed her more and more of me, the broad chest, my shoulders and back. When I got to my boxer briefs, I just pulled the waistband down. "Congratulations...you're looking at one of the few parts of me that hasn't been cybernetically enhanced, Misty…"

"Are you _sure?"_ She stared at me as I moved closer to her. "Stephen…what are you going to do to me?" Misty asked. I don't think even she knew if she should be scared or aroused or both.

I smiled broadly. "EVERYTHING."

I went slow with Misty, spending a lot of time on foreplay, which was clearly unknown to her before, but she learned quickly and responded well. When I took her, I took her slow, but I took her COMPETELY. She was in some pain when I did, but after a while, she either stopped feeling the pain, or started to enjoy the pain more. And thanks to my improved strength and stamina, she and I were able to enjoy ourselves quite well, thank you very much.

Misty was so aroused that she didn't even mind when Rosa showed up, drawn by the rather enthusiastic noises we were making. I felt myself getting closer, and I threw back my head and ROARED, unable to hold back any longer, but I didn't stop. I slowed down somewhat, though, and Rosa watched, seemingly mesmerized as I slowly ravaged Misty, sitting nearby and watching as if critiquing my performance. By the time Misty was begging me to let her stop orgasming, Rosa was already undressed and caressing herself, waiting for the chance to join us.

I got up, drawing myself out of Misty, leaving her shaking on the ragged carpet. Rosa was clearly feeling competitive, intending to show Misty a thing or two about satisfying a man. However, when I started showing her what I knew about foreplay, any pretense of maintaining her dominant, aggressive female demeanor evaporated away.

Rosa knew what she wanted, all right, and wasn't shy about telling me. Neither was I shy about showing her what _I_ wanted, and she seemed to go into some kind of deep trance, calling me "Baron", and so I decided to encourage her desires by moving my head down, whispering into her ear about how she belonged to me, that I was the loa riding _her_ now. That caused her to go into convulsions, and she began to move with greater force and insistence. She looked up at me and said she would be my slave, that she would worship me, go on her knees before me. She was definitely fuck-drunk by that point and I was, too, already getting closer to my second orgasm of the night. By the time I filled her with my seed, her body was starting to weaken as she orgasmed, one right after the other like machinegun fire. I felt myself getting closer to climax again, and I moved her on her hands and knees before moving into her from behind.

I started to get worried that I was hurting her, that what I was doing to her physically was almost punishing her. I didn't even realize that, while I was giving her what she craved, she had passed out twice from the intensity of it and I hadn't even slowed down, let alone stopped.

When she finally orgasmed her last, she tried to draw away from me, but couldn't even move. Rosa feebly held up the pointer fingers of both hands, making a cross and holding it up as if I was some sort of vampire and that would protect her from me. She rolled off the bed next to Misty, Rosa's touch causing aftershocks in Misty's body, who tried to push her away, but it only resulted in causing Misty to start shuddering again.

I smiled as I moved down next to them, caressing them, the light touches causing them to experience more aftershocks, keeping them in a state of arousal, providing a tender kiss here and there to kep them going. When I moved my head between theirs and whispered, "AGAIN" in a husky voice, they both moaned, whether in anticipation or fear, I couldn't tell.

After I was done, I was ready to relax...and Misty and Rosa were ready to pass out, both of them having melted halfway into the carpet. I'd definitely made sure that both of them stood a very good chance of getting preggers, but that wasn't to say that I was against the idea of practicing some more. For now, I just wanted to check on things and see how Clark and Ariel were doing.

* * *

Ariel was not too hard to find. She had been doing her rounds while I was with Misty and Rosa, and she was in the room next door, looking confused as drek. "Ariel?" I asked as I walked over to her.

She looked up at me. "This body is confusing me."

"Want to talk about it?"

Ariel nodded. "This body has...sensory input that is designed to react accordingly to sexual stimulus, but I never knew what that stimulus could be, until I heard what went on this morning." Her nose wrinkled. "The human body is so...so NOXIOUS. I have been trying to deal with and understand things like _smells_...and touching things...I feel as if I'm still calibrating functions, functions I've never had before. And when I heard you and them this morning, at first, I was unbelievably _disgusted._ I had no idea that people could do such things...and yet, I felt _compelled_ to find out more about what was going on. And it's not like I didn't know what was going on. After all, one of my previous functions was keeping track of Icer's...truly impressive collection of pornography." Ariel shook her head. "The more I heard, the more I began to...EXPERIENCE." She sounded somewhere between horrified and amazed. "This body began to react in ways I'd never experienced before. I received data neural constructs I didn't recognize. It was...intense and exciting and pleasurable and sensitive and…" Her voice trailed off, and she realized she was stroking herself. "I can't help myself! It's like something else has taken the key to my brain and I'm no longer in the driver's seat! Can't you just stop this somehow?"

"I told you that things were going to be different, having a body. This is part of that."

"So how do I STOP it?"

"Have sex, or take a dip in the lake to cool off. Watch some of the porn on the cyberdeck so you can get some release. Heck, wait until Wayne and Ryan get back, between both of them, you should be able to get satisfaction."

"Uh...there's a problem with that, Sleeper. I thought about that. I mean, they're certainly equipped...but the problem is I don't want to do it with them. I don't know if they even have any interest in me, and even if they did, I don't want that with someone who has even less experience with that than _I_ do...even if there are two of them. Two times nothing is still nothing." She sighed. "I heard you and the others...and if I'm going to have to endure this, I'd rather endure this with someone who knows what they're doing. And from the sounds those two were making, you REALLY know what you're doing."

"This must be the part where I feel flattered. Ariel, I have to be honest with you. I don't have sex with just anyone because I feel like it. I have to feel something for them, and they have to feel something for me. The only reason I handle being with Misty AND Rosa is because there's an emotional connection. Not just between me and each of them, but they have those feelings for each other. And based on what I've seen so far, this planet is teetering on the edge of collapse. If some bug like the Spanish Flu came along, this entire continent would be one empty place. They want to be mothers and wives badly enough to share a husband."

"And your point is?"

"Before I can be with you, there has to be something more than just physical attraction. You have to want to be with me for me. When you can comprehend what that really means...then you'll be ready. I can't be the same with you that I can with them, because they want to bear children. And unless you've discovered a working set of Fallopian tubes in there, that's not an option for you and me. So there needs to be something else."

She sighed. "Starting to think I was better off in The Box…"

"That's life, Ariel. What can I tell you?"

Silence for a few minutes, then she jabbed a thumb behind her. "Lake's that way, right?"

"Enjoy your swim."

* * *

Clark was in the "nest room", the classroom where the gatorclaws had made the nest, sitting back with his eyes closed. "Morning, Clark," I said slowly, not wanting to startle him awake.

Clark opened his eyes without moving. "Morning, technically."

"I was figuring you'd slept in."

Clark chuckled. "Who can sleep with racket?"

Great. Just _fan_ tas _tic._ "Uh, sorry about that."

"Just glad you waited until sunup. Was thinking you'd start earlier." He turned towards the nest. "Can you hear them?"

I turned up the gain on my cyberears, but I didn't have to turn them up much to hear chirping noises coming from the eggs. "What does the chirping mean?"

"Means they be leaving eggs soon. Need to be here when they do. They look at you, think you their momma. Keep feeding, take care of them, they listen to you."

"I've only owned a pet once before...and these sure aren't talis cats."

"NOT pets. FAMILY." He held up a finger, waving it slightly."Gatorclaws SMART. Smarter than some people. Take care of them, they take care of us."

I sighed. "You're the expert. Maybe you should be their momma."

Clark looked at me. "Why you not want to be momma?"

"Because I'd rather they were helped by someone who knows how to take care of them."

He narrowed his eyes. "Normally leader want control."

"Yeah, but I don't want control. I want them to help us, keep us safe, feel that this is their home. You can do that better than I can." I walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I trust you. The question is, are you willing to take responsibility for them? This is a BIG responsibility. Do you want it?"

He looked at me like I just gave him the Ark Of The Covenant. He cleared his throat and said, "Clark DO."

"Good. Keep me informed on what needs to be done to take care of them and do it right. I'm counting on you, Clark. We all are."

He nodded and I walked outside again, hoping I was doing the right thing. Let's face it, while there may be angels, there sure as drek that there's no Santa Claus. I may have had to risk a little naivete, but I wasn't eager to do so. I may be good at death and destruction, but it doesn't mean I like it...much.

Now all I had to do was keep things in order until the Brotherhood of Steel showed up. At this point, I knew it was just a matter of time.

I just wish I knew how MUCH time I had left.

* * *

Wayne never came back.

Apparently, living with us didn't suit his "style". He wanted to travel, not "sit around and get domesticated." I figured he just didn't want to end up as "Sleeper Lite" in the community. I wasn't exactly surprised to hear the news, but I was surprised when he declined further communication with us. "I need to make it on my own. Maybe I'll make it back there, maybe not. No hard feelings, but I can't stay."

And that was it. End of story. Bye-bye.

Ryan came back, didn't seem too broken up over the idea of Wayne jumping ship. He had picked up some other information, based on what he'd seen in his travels, information that turned out to be VERY interesting.

First off, the Brotherhood of Steel was sticking around. They were apparently looking for something, something important enough to send a zep and a considerable amount of forces. He wasn't able to find out much, only that what they were looking for was very important to something known as "the Institute". Looks like I'm not the only source of high-tech resources out here. Might be a good idea to see what I can pick up on the radio channels. Also, if the Brotherhood is sniffing around, might be a good idea to head back to that military outpost and move all that weaponry back here, where it'll be more accessable and less likely to be stumbled over by nosy people wearing Brotherhood uniforms.

Ryan also found out more information about Nawlins and Red Stick. None of it good. The Mayor of Red Stick is a puppet, controlled by the richest people in town and the worst criminals in town...who mostly happen to be the same people. The guy running the show from the shadows, according to rumor, is a guy named Papa Legbe, who supposedly is a bonafide _houngan_ , with the ability to turn people he doesn't like into corpses, and then reanimate them as zombies. Enough people are buying into this to make him the most feared man in Red Stick.

Nawlins is even WORSE. According to Ryan, rumor has it that the city is clean and a great place to live, as long as you're Catholic. If not, you're considered a heretic, and the guy in charge, the Cardinal, apparently is a huge fan of Torquemada's work. He's got some "holy crusade" in mind, and the only reason why his power is kept in check outside the city limits is his powered armor units have a tendency to sink in mud...and there is a LOT of that out here. However, from what Ryan says, rumors suggest that the Cardinal is unlikely to let that get in the way of getting what he wants...which appears to be everything he doesn't already own.

Great. A church with the mind of a megacorp. I've sent a message to Ryan to return to base and give them both a wide berth for now. Once Misty and Rosa wake up, and hopefully aren't sore...or sore at ME...we'll see what we need to do after we recover the weapons from the outpost.

In the meantime...time to do a little research on this "Institute".

Good thing this deck comes with a sizable battery. It took me forever to figure out how to use the dish on the roof of the Audio/Video building to contact a satellite to use. Fortunately, the encryption on the satellites still active were so pitiful, even _I_ could hack into them. They couldn't do much, but they could do what I needed.

First off, it gave me the means to listen in on the chatter from the location of where the Institute was rumored to be, and there was plenty of chatter on an active radio station called, "Diamond City Radio", even if the DJ wasn't exactly what you'd call "confident". The Institute was basically the Me of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, except they weren't scaring bad guys, they were scaring everyone. Apparently they had the ability to make synthetic humans, or "synths", that were indistinguishable from regular human beings, and reportedly kidnapping people and replacing them with synth copies.

I considered. What would Icer do in a situation like this? I had picked up a few things during my years with him...I remembered him talking about how data, when it's transferred, is stored in a thing called a "buffer" while it's being transferred to avoid losing data. If they tried to send it somewhere it would be safe, the information might still be in the "buffer". I just have to find out what satellite they used to send the information.

Piece of cake. Sure.

* * *

Think of an hour. Sixty minutes. Not that long, right? Now, think of that much time from the perspective of someone moving at the speed of thought. Now I know why Icer always looked so damned tired even when it seemed like he was sleeping peacefully. He was _mentally_ exhausted.

While the cyberdeck moved like greased lightning, the connections moved like frozen molasses. It felt like an hour to connect to each available satellite in range, and that's counting the ones with no more purpose but hadn't run out of power yet. The rest was an ocean of space junk.

And here I was, looking for a drop of information.

It felt like a few weeks before I was able to connect to an Institute satellite. I got lucky; this Institute had co-opted a number of satellites that were no longer used because the original users were turned to ash two centuries prior. But, thanks to batteries and solar panels, and a lack of corrosive substances in geosynchronous orbit, they were still functional and still useful.

Unfortunately for the Institute, they had relied on the fact that no one else on the planet had the means to connect to the satellites. Why lock your door if nobody in the country is capable of reaching the doorknob? However, the problem with that is that makes your front door impregnable...until someone with a battering ram comes along.

KNOCK, KNOCK, motherfraggers.

As soon as I connected and hacked my way through the protocols...well, I let the cyberdeck do the hacking...I was able to find a boatload of information. It looked like the Institute was uploading a backup of their database to another location as a means of protecting their assets. Project information, synth development and a little something called a "molecular relay." The buffer wasn't complete, though. The buffer would transmit information in blocks, and after each block was transmitted, the buffer would erase itself to open up space for the next block.

So, I could only get the information for the last block...as well as other information. I also found out where the information was being transmitted to, a location on an oil well platform out in the Gulf of Mexico. The information in the buffer also included one more piece of information...download protocols. Even a non-techie like me understood enough to know that it would give me a means of getting that information sent to ME as well.

I had no idea how I'd be able to use that information...but I was looking forward to finding out.

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TO BE CONTINUED….


End file.
